
Class f^^G^ 

Book .'?y 6 

("0|J^Tll>ll( N" __ 

COPYRIGHT DEposrr. 



THE 

HISTORY OF A LIFE, 

BY 
RODERICK E. ROMBAUER. 



^li^ 



**Ife lives most, who thinks most, 
feels the noblest, ads the best.'' 

— Bailey. 






THE LiBR'RY OF 

cCNijKebs 

Two Copiei Recorirsc) 

MAR 30 1903 

Cop,..ght £ntty 
Uj^ %. KTfcZ 
ClXSS Oj XXc No 

COPY 0. 



Entered accordinjr to Art of Confess, in the year ISOJ, by 

RODERICK K. ROMUAUER, 
In the OOlcc ol ihv Librariau of Congress in Washington. 



INDEX. 

PAGE. 

Preface 5-6 

His childhood and schooling 7-12 

His relations to his father 12-14 

His last years in Hungary and first years in 

America 14- 22 

His views on religion, social duties, and on the 

relations of man to woman 22-26 

His views of the value of money wealth . . . 26-28 
His morbid ambition in early youth .... 28- 29 

His judicial career 29-52 

Address of Saml. T. Glover 33 

Response by R. E. Rombauer 34 

Comments of opposition press 40 

Letter of Seymour D. Thompson .... 42, 43 
Remarks at Francis banquet 46 

Calvary 52- 59 

In memoriam Saml. Reber 53 

In memoriam Geo. A. Madill 55 

In memoriam Thos. T. Gantt 55 

His work as a public speaker 60- 89 

Address to Graduating Class of 1869 of St. 

Louis Law School 60 

Address at unveiling of monument of Freder- 

icli Hecker 67 

Address at Memorial Services, for Louis 

Kossuth 73 

Address at decoration of Statue of Stephen 

Sechenyi 87 

Visit to Arthur Gorgei 89 

His activity in public affairs 91-132 

Opposition to Missouri Constitution of 1865 . 92 

Poem read at National Cemetery dedication . 93 

Anti third term activity 94 

Independent Municipal Ticket 96 

Address at Boer sympathy meeting .... 100 

Open letter to St. Louis Republic 110 

Comments on same 124 

Address to Independent Voters 126 

(3) 



INDEX. 

PACK. 

His humor 132 

Charge to Jury in mock trial 133 

His work as an educator 140 

His family 142 

Explanatory 144 

Retrospect 145 

(O 



PREFACE. 

The scant information which we possess concerning the 
lives of our ancestors has always been a source of great 
resret to me. Even in the rare cases where an accurate 
family register is kept, it is confined to recording the 
names of persons, the date of their birth, of their mar- 
riage and of their death. If the record runs back to 
medieval times it may record the feat of arms of some, 
the only feats then deemed of sufficient importance to be 
recorded. If they were loyal and of sufficient importance 
to hold office of note, the record makes a brief mention of 
their offices and dignities. If they were disloyal and of 
sufficient importance to have their heads cut off in conse- 
quence, the record makes brief mention of the cause of 
their tragic endings. What kind of men and women 
they were, what they thought and said, and of what 
benefit, if any, their lives were to their fellowmen, is not 
deemed of sufficient importance to be recorded. 

There is no life so humble but that its accurate history 
may be of some use to others. To those who like myself 
are firm believers in heredity, a continued family record, 
showing the development of traits from generation to 
generation is not only of great interest, but may be of sub- 
stantial advantage. These considerations have determined 
me to write a history of my own life. I have been trans- 
planted from the old to the new world, and hence stand 
in the position of an American ancestor. Should my 
progeny survive for generations it may be of interest to 
them to know, that I too was born, married and died, but 
that this was not the sum total of my existence. Some of 
them may, if so inclined, continue this history, and make 
it a history of generations, a family record worthy of the 

name. 

5 



It is next to impossible to take a just and strictly objec- 
tive view of ourselves. If we are diffident we are apt to 
underestimate our merits, and exaggerate our defects. If 
we are self-assertive and egotistical we are apt to fall into 
the opposite error. There is however a standard by which 
our character and attainments may be fairly judged, and 
that is by our public utterances, and by the public utter- 
ances of others concerning ourselves. If we are sincere 
our utterances retlect our mind and character. If others 
are sincere their utterances concerning ourselves reflect 
their estimate of our miud, character and work. Since I 
am assured of my own sincerity, and have no reason to 
doubt the sincerity of others whom I shall quote, these 
expressions, making due allowance for the partiality of 
friends, and errors in their judgment, are the most satis- 
factory index to the history of my maturer 3'ears, and to 
what I felt, thought, and accomplished in a long life of 
somewhat varied experience. The main part of this history 
consists of my own public utterances concerning men and 
things, and the public utterances of others concerning my- 
self. 

In speaking of myself I shall speak as of a third person, 
80 as to be able to see myself, as far as possible, as others 
saw me. As to my inner life, and motives which actuated 
me, matters which were necessarily hid from the observa- 
tion of others, I will try to be accurate, and impartial. 

St. Louis, January 1, 1903. 



LIFE OF RODERICK E. ROMBAUER. 



HIS CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLING. 

Roderick Emile Eombauer was boru on the 9tli day of 
May, 1833, at Schelesto, a small village in the department 
of Bereg, upper Hungary. He was the third son, and 
fourth child of Theodore and Bertha. His parents were 
second cousins and bore the same family name, the family 
being one of old Saxon stock. Owing to the fact, that the 
records of the city (Locse) where his forefathers resided, 
were wholly destroyed during the civil wars in the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries, no authentic records of the earlier 
histor}^ of the family are in existence. The supposition is 
it came to Hungary, not earlier than in the twelfth and not 
later than in the fourteenth century. A memorial tablet 
erected in the principal church of the city, records the 
merits of one Eombauer (obiit 1660) who was city coun- 
cilman and delegate to Congress, and is the earliest authen- 
tic description of any one of that name. A report made 
by him to his constituency February 23, 1634, written in a 
bold, clear hand, going fully into the measures then pending 
before Congress, which report is preserved among the 
archives of the city, indicates that he was a man of culture 
and some parts. The Saracen's head, however, which the 
family carries in its coat of arms, seems to indicate that 
some more or less remote ancestor of the councilor earned 
his knighthood in a less peaceful manner than by writing 
reports. 

At the date of Roderick's birth his father was at the 
head of an extensive iron factor}', and director of the 
enterprise. He was the most prominent man in the village, 
and of the district for some miles around it. The family 

7 



8 

inhabited the most pretentious house in the settlement , 
which, although of moderate dimension, was called by 
courtesy, " the castle." In the rear of the house was a 
flower and vegetable garden, and a park of moderate 
dimensions. 

When four years old the boy was put in charge of a 
private tutor. He took to learning with no great relish, 
being a child of fractious disposition and addicted to roam- 
in"'. His tutor tried to entice him into a successful struir- 
gle with the alphabet by the bribe of honey -cakes, but this 
expedient, while working satisfactorily at first, soon 
proved too expensive. The honey-cakes were stored with 
a promise that the next successful recital would increase 
their size. When the boy, mistrusting this promise, ascer- 
tained bv successive secret measurements that it was false, 
he slapped his tutor's face, and was severely punished 
in conse(|uence. 

The playmates and companions of the boy were children 
of inferior officials, and of the rustics of the neighborhood, 
and being able to lord it over them he developed an arbi- 
trary and dictatorial disposition which he retained more or 
less through life. I mention these facts because though 
it were folly to ascribe to incidents and suiToundiugs 
alone the moulding of temper and character, we are apt to 
feel influences which affect our early life throughout its 
entire course. Thus the insincerity of the tutor, whose 
deceit he discovered, impressed the boy deeply, and in sub- 
setjueut years he would forgive and forget almost any other 
offense, rather than pardon insincerity. His arbitrary 
disposition was probably innate, but was unquestionably 
augmented and developed bv the fact that his earlv i)lav- 
mates submitted to his lording it over them. 

The ground where the child was born was historic 
f^round. In its close proximity rose the high mountains 
which separate Hungary from Poland, and through the 
passes of which the Hungarian host, led by Arpad, had 
invaded the country a thousand years ago. On a l)utte 



bordering the plain and but a few miles distant, stands the- 
little fortress of Munk^cs, once the principal stronghold of 
the Eakoczis, and the place where the heroic Helen Zrinyi, 
mother of Francis Rakoczi the second surrendered to the 
Hapsburgs, The streams traversing the country bore the 
names of the early Hungarian chief s and heroes, they were 
clear and rapid, and were cradled in extensive forests of 
somber pines. It seems natural that roaming through 
these localities should fill the boy's mind with all kinds of 
legendary lore — and make him a dreamer, indulging in 
fancies. 

When the boy was six years old his parents removed to 
Munkacs, a town of about 4,000 inhabitants, situated in the 
same department. They still inhabited what was called 
by courtesy a castle, but there was at least another house 
in town which was a castle of greater pretensions, and in- 
habited by a family of a rank superior to theirs. The boy 
began to associate with his equals and superiors in the so- 
cial scale, and his arbitrary disposition met often with a 
very severe check. He remained in charge of a private 
tutor until he was nine years of age, had mastered in a 
way the rudiments of an elementary education, and was 
deemed sufficiently advanced to enter a grammar school. 
His next oldest brother, working under the same tutors, 
was always a more diligent scholar, and on the whole more 
tractable. At times one or two children of friends of 
his parents were put in charge of the same tutor. Yet 
during all the time of private tuition Roderick remained the 
favorite pupil of his tutors. He didnotreflectmuchon this 
circumstance then, but has often thought of it since, when 
later experience taught him the lesson,that our attachment 
to people is determined by other considerations than those 
of merit. 

The private grammar school in which the boy was placed 
was a Catholic institution, but was the only one of that 
kind in the vicinity. It was frequented by the sons of 
the neighboring gentry, and was carried on much on the 



10 

plan of the Yorkshire schools described by Dickens, the 
main instruments of eductition consisting of the switch, 
and whips. Rawhides at that time were fortunately un- 
known in that section of the country. Flagellation was a 
thing of daily occurrence. The cruelty of teachers became 
at last so unbearable that the pupils entered into a conspir- 
acy to desert the school in a body, take to the woods and 
corn fields and become an organized band of highwaymen. 
The boys were not familiar with Schiller's " The Robbers," 
and the oldest of them was hardly twelve years old, but I 
suppose to meet force by force and violence by violence, is 
an inborn inclination in every human being. Fortunately the 
conspiracy was discovered in time. Its beneficial result was 
the summary dismissal of the most cruel of the teachers 
and the withdrawal by their parents of many of the pupils 
from the school, within a short time thereafter. Of both 
of these events the boy Roderick had the incidental 
benefit. 

Another matter deserves brief mention. Every Sunday 
and holiday the children were marched to the Catholic 
church, a building which was in winter cold and uncom- 
fortable, and were there made to listen to chants and 
recitals, of which they understood never a word, and made 
to kneel down on the stone flagged floor at stated intervals. 
Since the boys parents were Protestants, and those of his 
ancestors who bore arms, bore arms in the Protestant 
cause, this forced attendance upon a church service, which 
he regarded more or less idolatrous, made him rebellious 
against any church authority. It is but fair to say that in 
later years he very impartially transferred his aversion 
to compulsory attendance on churches to tiiose of the 
Protestant creed, and in fact was the only pupil of a 
large class in a Protestant gymnasium, who refused to 
be confirmed, a resolution which to the horror of the 
principal of the school, was confirmed by his father, 
who wrote: "Let the boy choose his own creed when 
he is old enough to do so intellisrentlv." 



11 

In his eleventh year the boy was first sent away from 
home to a graded school. His parents had removed to a 
more southern and western part of Hungary, in the depart- 
ment of Gomor, where his father was in charge of more 
extensive iron factories, in which he was personallj^ in- 
terested. The boy's school years were during the next 
few years uneventful. He remained, what he had hereto- 
fore been, a pupil of indifferent industry, managing usually 
to hold his place in the middle of the class, until the year 
1847-48, by which time his roaming habits and dreaming 
disposition had increased to an extent, that he fell to the 
rank of being the last in a class of over sixty. The grief 
of his father at this result, made a deep and lasting im- 
pression on the boy which bore fruit. When, after the close 
of the revolution of 1848-49, he re-entered school, he not 
only graduated at the end of the scholastic year at the 
head of a class of over seventy, but was the only scholar 
of eminence in Hungarian literature. An incident con- 
nected with this, his last school year in Europe, is worthy 
of mention as throwing light on his character. Among 
the subjects taught was the history of metaphysics, which 
was optional. The boy did not attend these lectures 
although he was a great favorite of the particular 
professor. Shortly before the final examination, call- 
ing upon the professor, the latter expressed great 
regret that the boy had not attended his lectures. He 
at once returned to his room, and for the next forty- 
eight hours devoted himself incessantly to the study of 
the text-book. At the close of that time he solicited 
an examination, and passed it with honors, to the great 
satisfaction of the particular professor, who embraced him 
with tears in his eyes. The boy did not care for the 
history of metaphysics a particle, but rather than give 
pain to a professor who was greatly attached to him, 
crammed the text-book with indefatigable zeal ; and within 
forty-eight hours after his examination, knew as little 
about the subject as he had ever known before. 



12 



HIS RELATIONS TO HIS FATHER. 

The father of Roderick was in many respects an un- 
common man. He was wholly free from all prejudices of 
raste, of race, and of creed, and that in a country where 
all these prejudices were strongly accentuated. lie was an 
ideal democrat in the highest sense of that term. A man 
of untiring energy, and a rigid disciplinarian — at times 
stern, and at others of the tenderness of a woman. The 
boy inherited some of his good qualities, and when he got 
older he ascertained that he had inherited all of his 
weaknesses. 

However impartial a father may endeavor to be in treat- 
ing all his children with equal consideration and affection, 
there will always be some one of them to whom he is more 
partial. In the nature of things, we have but a very 
limited control of our affections, nor are they controlled 
by our sense of justice. Without any attempt at discrim- 
ination, and regardless of sex, some children are more 
attached to their father, some more to their mother. 

Roderick was always more attached to his father than to 
his mother, although he always held the latter in grateful 
veneration. To give pain to his father was to give pain to 
himself. When, during his school years, his intractable 
and violent disposition led him into difficulties, and he 
became defiant of all authority, the kind exhortations of 
his father would always bring him to terms, and the inter- 
view would end, with the boy sobbing repentant in his 
father's arms. When the boy grew to man's estate this 
relation grew into a deep rooted affection and friendship 
between the older and younger man. Wiien they were 
separated they corresponded extensively and exchanged 
confidences. To no other human being did Roderick lay 
bare his thoughts and feelings to the same extent. Ilis 
father was the only confidant of his first great passion, 
his first dream of love, and in return the boy was made 
aware of his father's early dream in that direction. They 



13 

linew and shared each other's hopes and aspirations. It was 
<iue to his father's wish that the young man devoted him- 
self to the profession of the law, for which he had no 
great liking, and when at last his father died at a compara- 
tively early age, he felt the bereavement intensel}^ because 
it meant to him a vacancy which, aside of the parental 
relation, could never be supplied. 

When in later years Koderick determined to collect and 
publish the verses which he had written from time to time, 
it was in part to preserve the memory of his father as 
the principal figure in " Ecce heros." The dedication 
which was to accompany this publication, written many 
years ago, is here inserted, as evidence of the facts above 
recited : — 

IN MEMORIAM. 

"We sat in autumn twilight side by side 

And round us broken into dale and swell 

Like the wind-furrowed ocean, far and wide 

The undulating prairie rose and fell. 

Bright crimson tints marked the departing day, 

And lingered slowly fading on the hill, 

The busy hum of toil had passed away, 

The measured note of the lone whip-poor-will 

Alone broke through the stillness, and I read 

To thee the legends of a far-off land 

Wove into songs my childish fancy bred 

Before we met again upon the strand 

Of a strange people fate had made our own. 

Thence and forever, and thy partial praise, 

Thy kind indulgence to these erstlings shown, 

Made dear to me my crude Hungarian lays. 



The mist of many years now rolls between 
The memories of that evening and this day, 
And through that mist that golden sunset seen 
Now seems so far, alas so far away. 
We parted since, and met to part again, 
Each meeting sweeter, kindlier than before 
Until there came the day, on which we twain 
Parted, knowing that we should meet no more. 
Jar from thy native land thou foundst a home, 



14 



Such home as exiles And, silent and cold, 
Green grows the sward over its humble dome 
And closely bend its walls of crumbling mould. 
Where past the rocky isle, with rushing sound 
The mighty river hastens to the sea, 
I have reclined oft since upon the mound 
Which covers all that now remains of thee. 
Then started off to fight the angry sea 
Which meets the wanderer on an alien shore, 
And life and love have smiled again to me, 
But ah such love as yours, no more, no more. 



Sweet guardian of my childhood, father, friend 

Of later days in my raaturer years 

How bright thy image, as I slowly wend 

My steps through life's meridian oft appears, 

Again I see thee on that auburn hill 

In autumu twilight as in early days. 

Day's busy hum is gone, and all is still 

Save the sad note of the lone whip-poor-will 

While I read tliese to thee my later lays. 

Then sudden thou art gone, thou hear'st them not, 

Art on far shores which mystic waters lave. 

Mournful I turn from the deserted spot 

And lay these as an offering on thy grave. 



HIS LAST YEARS IN HUNGARY AND FIRST 
YEARS IN AMERICA. 

In 1848 Ilunsrary's new constitution was adopted, and 
Count Louis Batyani was placed at the head of the first 
Hungarian cabinet. Roderick's father accepted a position 
as chief of the section of industry under Secretary Klau- 
.sal, who was a member of this cabinet. The family 
removed from the country to the capital, in the early part 
of the year, and Roderick joined them there at the end of 
the scholastic year. A national army was about to be cre- 
ated, and a military academy was established at the capital, 
which he attended as a pupil. It was the intention of his 
father, if all things went right with the national govern- 
ment, to send him for the completion of his studies to 



15 

Thun, in Switzerland, where a military school, in charo-e 
of General Dufour, had the reputation of being one of the 
best of its kind in Europe. Things, however, did not go 
right. Owing to the perfidy of the Austrian government 
an armed conflict arose between Hungary and the Austrian 
house, and Koderick's father was placed in charge of the 
national factories for manufacturing arms and ammunition. 
After the defeat of the Hungarian army at Schwechat, 
near Vienna, all departments of the government were re- 
moved from the capital, and the principal factory of arms 
which had been established there was transported to Nao-y- 
varad, a small fortress in the southeastern portion 
of Hungary. The boy accompanied his father to 
the latter place, and remained with him until the 
summer of 1849, when the battle of Temesvar, and 
the final surrender to the Russians of the main Hun- 
garian army at Vilagos, brought the war and the revo- 
lution to a close. His father became a captive of the Eus- 
sians, but effecting his escape disguised as a journeyman, 
succeeded in passing the Austrian frontier. He first went 
to Belgium, and thence to England, where he embarked 
for the United States of America, landing in New York. 
Shortly afterwards he sailed for California. 

In 1851, the other members of the family likewise left 
Hungary and rejoined the head of the family, who in the 
meantime had returned from California and had entered 
some lands in Scott County, Iowa, about eighteen miles 
west of Davenport, on which he was farming. The means 
of transportation were very crude in those days. The boat 
in which the family sailed from Hamburg to New York 
consumed fifty-four days in its voyage, and lost all its masts 
in a gale which it encountered on the banks of Newfound- 
land. There was no railroad to speak of west of Chicago, 
and the boys crossed Illinois in a team, and the female 
members of the family in a stage coach. 

The farm enterprise proved a financial failure. The 
family removed from the farm first to Davenport, and 



16 

thence ia 1853 to St. Louis, Missouri, where Roderick's 
mother established a private school for the tuition of 
girls. His older brother and himself found employ- 
ment, in a subordinate capacity, with a surveying party 
then engaged in locating and constructing the Pacific 
railroad between the Gasconade and Osage rivers. In 
1854 both accepted positions with a surveying party, 
locating the Northern Cross Railroad (now part of the 
Burlington system) between Quincy and Galesburg, in the 
State of Illinois, where Roderick was promoted to the 
position of an assistant engineer and placed in charge of 
the construction of twenty miles of the railroad between 
Macomb and Avon. 

It was while thus employed, that the 3'ouug man became 
acquainted with the Lawrence brothers, Henry and Chas. 
B., the latter afterwards chief justice of the State of 
Illinois. This acquaintance soon ripened into an intimate 
friendship, which lasted through the lifetime of the two 
older men, and materially influenced the hoy's future. 

The few years spent by him as an engineer on the prai- 
ries of Illinois, were among his happiest years. The young 
man was full of enthusiasm, in excellent health, engaged in 
an occupation thoroughly to his taste, and a great favorite 
with his superiors, his associates, and in fact with all men 
and women with whom he came in contact. The fact that 
both in disposition and thought he was thoroughly unlike 
others, seemed to exercise a peculiar fascination. lie was 
still fervently attached to his native land and people, and 
regarded his sojourn in America as a mere temporary 
affair. Some contemporary incidents will best illustrate 
the trend of his thoughts at tliat time. One of his female 
friends wrote him a note, chiding him for being an alien 
in feeling, and for not taking a greater interest in his sur- 
roundings, to which he replied in the following verses, — 
very sincere in sentiment, and very crude in composi- 
tion : — 



17 

Truly you say, a love, strong love of home, 

Like an eternal flame, burns in this breast. 

But vrarmer, kindlier though, bums not alone. — 

The eagle loves but his cliff-crowning nest 

Alone; The nightingale charms not the West, 

Her fairy song is for an eastern clime. 

But when God stamped man with a varied crest 

And sent him in the fields of endless time 

He did design a being more sublime 

And T am man, though in my loving heart 

My fatherland's saint shrine may higher rise. 

And for its sufferings my soul keener smart, 

The world's my home. * * * 

The political combination in Europe at tliat time seemed 
to hold out a promise of the segregation of Hungary from 
Austria, and its establishment as an independent republic. 
The young man read all the accounts of the subject with a 
great deal of interest. He was in the habit of going to his 
office at daybreak and attending to his work and corre- 
spondence before breakfast. On one of these occasions, 
while writing to a Hungarian friend, the morning salute 
of the chanticleers inspired him to begin his letter with the 
following verses : — 

Die Haehne kraeh'n, 

Im femen Osten steigt das Licht empor 

Und bald wird es den Halbkreis iiberfliegen 

Im femen Osten den ein Gott erkor. 

Freiheit und Macht in seinen Schooss zu wiegen 

Und mag er auch zur Zeit darniederliegen 

Und Nacht der Sklaverei ihn auch umweh'n, 

Nie wird er dauernd sich den Fesseln schmiegen. 

Ost, schouer Ost, auf baldigWiederseh'n 

Dein Tag ist nicht mehr fern — Ich hor die Haehne kraeh'n. 

He always remembered with great pleasure these days 
of his early youth so full of enthusiasm and visionary 
dreams. Many years afterwards when the serious lessons 
of life had sobered him he concluded a small descriptive 
poem with the lines — 

Oh f roehliche, seelige Jugendzeit 

Du liegst in der Feme so weit — so weit. — 

2 



18 

In 1855 his father died in Davenport, Iowa. Roderick 
was at his bedside during his hist moments and felt the blow 
very keenly. He was kept in Davenport for a consider- 
able time in winding up, as administrator, the very limited 
estate which his father left, and then returned to Quincy, 
Illinois, to devote himself to the study of the law. lie 
entered for that purpose the office of Williams and Law- 
rence, the former afterwards Chief Justice of Kansas, and 
the latter Chief Justice of Illinois. The very excited 
political campaign of 1856, in which he followed the ban- 
ner of Free Soil, Free Speech, Freedom and Fremont, and 
in which he took an active part both as writer and speaker, 
interfered materially with his law studies. At the unsuc- 
cessful termination of the campaign, however, in Novem- 
ber, 1850, he went to Cambridge, to attend the Dane Law 
School of Harvard University. It seemed a desperate 
venture, since the young man was almost wholly' without 
means. Upon arriving in Cambridge he set about at once 
to earn something towards defraying the expenses of his 
maintenance and education. He earned small sums by giving 
lessons in German, and in fencing, and by charging a small 
amount for the use of a gymnastic apparatus, which he had 
erected in his room, and which, strange to say, was the first 
gymnastic apparatus in use in Cambridge. After the very 
active physical life which he had led heretofore, confinement 
began totell upon him, and the fencing lessons and gymnas- 
tic exercises served the double purpose of improving both 
his health and slender means. Later on, when his profes- 
sors knew him better, be was enabled to earn larger sums 
in doing some work in the line of his profession. He was 
selected to write some notes to Prof. Washburn's work on 
real property, and together with his friend Richard Olney, 
afterwards famous as the Secretary of State of the Cleve- 
land administration, was selected to get up a new edition 
of Angell and Ames on Corporations. Even that class of 
work, however, was very poorly paid for in those days. 

While the young man in those days was wretchedly poor, 



19 

he was morbidly proud, a trait which caused him a good 
deal of suffering then and thereafter. The following inci- 
dents furnish illustrations. Prof. Washburn had advanced 
him some money, which he thought the young man was 
not spending judiciously, and wrote to him a kindly and 
well meant note on the subject. Eoderick at once retorted 
with a defiant letter, concluding: "I demand justice and 
not charity. Charity I seek of no one, not even of a 
friend short of my God." Prof. Washburn was dum- 
f ounded at this outburst, and asked the intervention of 
Prof. Parker, and it took all the persuasive powers of the 
latter to convince the young man that no offense was in- 
tended, and thus effect a reconciliation. Both professors 
took a very warm interest in this unmanageable youno- 
man. They both corresponded with him to some extent 
after he left college, and when he visited them many years 
thereafter, he learned that they had followed his career at 
the bar with interest. They were both of the highest type 
of American gentlemen. God keep their memory green. 

A short time before going to Cambridge Eoderick had 
met in Quincy, Illinois, George Sumner, the traveler and 
lecturer, who was a younger brother of Charles Sumner, 
the great Senator. George had taken quite a liking to the 
young man, and as soon as he ascertained that he was in 
Cambridge he called upon him and insisted on introducing 
him to H. W. Longfellow, with whom his relations were 
apparently very close. Longfellow, to whom Sumner prob- 
ably gave a very partial account of the young man, pressed 
him earnestly to visit him and his family, a distinction then 
much sought after in Cambridge. Of this invitation he 
never availed himself, owing to his somewhat dilapidated 
wardrobe; an omission which in later years he often re- 
gretted. These two incidents, trivial in themselves, are 
characteristic of his morbid pride and sensitiveness at that 
period of his life. 

In May, 1858, he came to St. Louis, Missouri, which 
was thereafter his permanent home. He was utterly devoid 



20 

of means, and a stranger in a strange city, because, 
althoiio'li his mother, brothers and si.sters resided there, 
they were not so situated as to give him any material aid. 
He obtained desk-room in another lawj'er's office, with the 
privilege of sleeping in it, rather uncomfortably, on a 
lounoro. At an eating-house close by, he took his noon meal 
at the cost of 25 cents. His breakfast and supper, consist- 
ino' usually of a cup of Broma, prepared on an alcohol lamp, 
and a piece of bread, he took in his office. By the most 
ri<'id economy he was enabled inside of two years to pay all 
debts which he had contracted to defray the expenses of 
his education in Cambridge, and when the war for the 
Union broke out in 18G1, he had laid by something, and 
could indulge in the luxury of a modest bank account. 

Upon Lincoln's first call for 75,000 volunteers, he en- 
tered the first company of the first regiment of Missouri 
volunteers, as a private. Ho was soon thereafter dis- 
charged to enable him to organize a company of Home 
guards, and became the captain of the first company of the 
first regiment of that organization, and served in that 
capacity until his company was mustered out at the e\']iira- 
tion of its term of service. His company participated in 
the taking of Camp Jackson, and did some service in South- 
east Missouri where he contracted a violent camp fever of 
a typhoid character, which confined him to his room and 
bed for several months, and prevented him from participat- 
ing in the reorganization of the regiment for the three 
years service. After his recovery he went to West Vir- 
ginia, where General Fremont, with whom he had a slight 
acquaintance, was then in command of the Mountain De- 
partment, and served for several months as a volunteer on his 
staff, with the expectation of being assigned to a position 
should a vacancy occur. His brother-in-law, who served 
with the rank of Colonel on the same staff, becoming com- 
pletely prostrated by an insidious disease, he accompanied 
him West to place him in charge of a mutual friend, who 
was a physician of some note in Davenport, Iowa. There 



21 

the young man remained until his brother-in-law was in a 
fair way of recovery, and then returned to St. Louis, 
Missouri, intending to resume his law practice. 

By this time, however, law practice in Missouri had be- 
come a very precarious thing to make a living by. All 
business, except such as the war created, was nearly at a 
standstill. There was an attempt at regular sessions of 
courts in St. Louis, but in other parts of the State there 
was hardly an attempt. Part of the State was in posses- 
sion of the Confederate forces, and the bulk of the territory 
was overrun by guerrilla bands. It became a practice in 
most cases where the defendant wanted delay, to obtain a 
change of venue, which operated as an indefinite stay of 
proceedings. Roderick concluded to seek his fortune in 
the newly discovered gold fields in Montana, and took pas- 
sage on one of the fur company's boats for Fort Benton, 
on the upper Missouri, from which point a wagon road led 
to Deer Lodge, then the headquarters of the gold seekers. 
Owing to the low stage of water in the Missouri river, the 
boat could not proceed any further than the mouth of Milk 
river, some three hundred miles below Fort Benton, and 
after being moored there for some time, in expectation of a 
rise which failed to materialize, it returned to St. Louis. 

The country on the upper Missouri, with the exception of 
a very limited territory in the immediate vicinity of the com- 
pany's forts and trading posts, was then a desolate waste. 
A short distance above Fort Ramdal in Nebraska, the 
bufelo region began. Large herds of these animals were 
in sight daily, and at times crossed the river in such dense 
masses as to delay the progress of the boat. The gray 
wolves and coyotes made night hideous with their howls 
and yelps. Occasionally bears would disport themselves 
on the sandbars lining the river. The country was barren 
and monotonous, and the mosquitoes were sanguinary in 
the extreme. The friendly Indians, of whom large num- 
bers frequented the boat at intervals, were blear-eyed and 
filthy, and their pipes poisoned the air of the cabin with 



22 

the malodorous fumes of the kimiikinnic. On the whole it 
was a journey which made one sigh for home sweet home. 
The hostile Indians, a band of whom made once a descent 
on the boat when moored, securing no scalps, but man- 
asino' to cai)ture some mules, were the only feature furnish- 
ing a picturesijue relief to the monotony of the situation. 
For that reason Roderick regretted to see the bloody scalps 
of many of them, a few days afterwards, dangling from 
the lances of the friendly Gros Ventres, good Catiiolic 
Indians, whose s(]uaws went through the scalp dance, not 
at all embarrassed by the little medallions hung on their 
necks, given to them by Father De Smet, the missionary, 
and bearing the appropriate inscription of " Maria Mater 
Dei." 



HIS VIEWS ON RELIGION, SOCIAL DUTIES, AND 
ON THE RELATIONS OF MAN TO WOMAN. 

It was at a comparatively early age that Roderick began 
seriously to reflect on matters of religious faith. Ilis 
parents were Protestants and his grandfather had been an 
eminent divine of that church, but had left his pastorate, 
owinsT to some advanced views which he entertained, wiiich 
did not meet with the approval of his congregation. His 
father's views on this subject, as on all others, were liberal, 
but he did not seek in any manner to influence his son's 
views on the subject, and he expressed himself repeatedly 
to the effect, that on the subject of creed each person 
should be permitted to form his own opinions, uninfluenced 
by the opinions of others. The boy being left to his own 
reflections, constructed theories of his own. He was always 
a firm believer in an intelligent force which governed the 
universe, in a transcendent power which represented the 
highest type of every good quality which appeared in man 
in an abnormal and imperfect state. He never attempted 
to give this being any definite form, because ho was aware 
of the impossibility of doing so, and recognized the absurd- 



23 

ity of the attempt of any finite mind to grasp that which in 
its very nature is infinite. For the same reason, while he 
believed in the eternity of things, he never made any 
attempt to formulate his thoughts on the subject. He saw 
and recognized that all matter was indestructible, and that 
which we called its destruction was a mere change of its 
form, a certain substance resolving itself into other ele- 
ments. While a young man he read with avidity Plato's 
Eepublic and other books discussing the immortality of 
the soul, but he recognized the difficulty of conceiving, 
that things which had a beginning should have no end, or 
that there could be a conscious future state, as a continua- 
tion of the present, and not linked with its memory. 
When the pedant James wants time and eternity symboli- 
cally represented in a design, and is at a loss how eternity 
should be represented, Scott makes the court jester sug- 
gest, that eternity should be made twice as big as time, a 
very proper lampoon on the attempt of representing the 
inconceivable. 

But while both the boy and man abandoned all specula- 
tion on the subject of a scheme of the universe, he recog- 
nized fully the influence of a religious creed on the moral 
development of the human race, and recognized in the 
tenets of Christianity, those best designed to advance the 
general welfare of mankind. He was ethically a Christian, 
although his conduct was in no way influenced by a belief 
or disbelief in a state of future existence, or of reward 
or punishment therein, for conduct in this life. He be- 
lieved in revelation, but not in the special revelation 
through one individual. In his opinion the divine will 
and power revealed itself in a blade of grass, no less 
than in the lives and teachings of the most eminent of 
mankind, except that in one case the revelation was more 
far-reaching and more beneficial to the human race than 
in the other. 

He recognized the fact that individual compromise is essen- 
tial to organized society, and that every one who becomes a 



24 

member of it, must necessarily surrender part of his natural 
ri<'^hts for the common good. lie also recofruized, how- 
ever, that every man owes duties to himself, no less than 
he owes duties to his family, to the commonwealth and to 
humanity. Man in a natural state, and segregated from 
his fellow men, has only the duty to make his life most 
beneficial to himself so as to derive the greatest happiness 
and content. "When he enters organized society the duty 
of contributing his share to the welfare of others is added, 
but while this necessarily curtails the duties he owes to 
himself alone, it neither qualifies nor abrogates them. 
When he becomes the head of a family, another duty is 
added, the obligation to support the family and properly 
rear its young. His other two duties still remain, although 
modified by the new duties assumed. In fact each man's 
dutv to himself is paramount to all his other duties. 

Roderick was naturally a l)rooder and devoted a great 
deal of time in brooding over these various subjects. 
"NVhy should man be different from all other animals in his 
family life? All animals guard their young while in a state 
of nurture, and some guanl them with the most self- 
sacrificing devotion, but all let them shift for themselves 
■when they arrive at the ago of maturity. Man alone clings 
not ouly to his progeny through life, but even to his blood 
relations and connections more removed. He endeavors to 
push them onward in life, often at the expense of others, 
and often regardless of their merit, and becomes grasping 
in their Ijelialf, even though not inclined to bo so for him- 
self. This trait of human nature, it seemed to him, was 
developed at a time when the hand of every one was 
ao^ainst his brother, when there was a constant feud of 
families, and a constant feud of States — when might made 
right, and alliances on part of individuals, and on j)ai't of 
peoples, were necessary measures to prevent their destruc- 
tion. The condition, it seemed to him, was neither the 
natural condition of man — because man, after all, while 
more advanced than other animiUs, is still an animal — nor 



25 

did it seem to him that it was a condition in harmony with 
a just relation of man to his fellow men, and their univer- 
sal brotherhood, which is unquestionably the highest state 
of civilization. 

Eoderick was always a great admirer of women. His 
warmest friends with the exception of his father were 
women. He was impressionable and somewhat tenacious 
in his attachments. He realized repeatedly that woman 
alone is capable of the true martyrdom of love. Man 
has numerous aspirations and ambitions which occupy 
him, and which seldom admit of his falling a prey to the 
all-absorbing passion. But to a woman love for man is 
her life — take that from it and there is little left. There 
are no sacrifices which she is not prepared to make to 
gratify her love, and she will even cling to a hopeless 
attachment with a continuity and singleness, which, except 
in rare cases, is unknown to man. 

In the nature of things, love, friendship and esteem are 
not matters of civil contract. Eoderick realized early in 
life that we are attached to some persons, and repelled by 
others, because their qualities and our own are such as to 
bring about that result in spite of our volition. We can 
as little control our affections as we can control our 
thoughts. He was moreover a firm believer in the free- 
dom of the affections, and as he endeavored to live an 
open and sincere live, he had no use whatever for the 
hjq^ocritical cant of so called society which discussed the 
relations of man to woman from a thoroughly insincere 
standpoint of its own, which may be properly designated 
as the standpoint of not being found out, or the stand- 
point of appearances. In fact I may state in this connec- 
tion that he had very little use for the opinions of so 
called society, any way, for which he entertained a pro- 
found contempt, finding that it was selfish, shallow, and 
utterly incompetent to deal with the most serious problems 
of life. 

Without going into any details on a subject where 



26 

details are excluvlcd by considerations for other persons if 
living, and considerations for tiieir memory if dead, I may 
say that Roderick was in the course of his life loved by 
several women deeply, and in some instances with a self- 
sacrificing devotion of which woman alone is capable. If 
some of the happiest hours of his life were due to this 
fact, so were some of the hours of his greatest anguish. 
He was, however, philosopher enough to realize, that 
great heights are impossible without great depths, and that 
anything is preferable to the monotony of the desert plain. 
To those who may shake their heads in disapprobation of 
these candid avowals, I can only say that I am writing the 
history of a life, and not the vindication of a man. 
Suffice it to say, however, that he rarely if ever did any- 
thing without the approval of his conscience. I might 
have omitted any reference to this somewhat delicate sub- 
ject were it not for the fact that no history of any life can 
be even partially complete, without some reference to its 
most important phases. 



Hia VIEWS OF THE VALUE OF MONEY 
WEALTH. 

From what has been above said, it would seem to follow, 
that Roderick did not put an exaggerated estimate on the 
true value of money wealth. He realized that its main 
value consisted of making its possessor more independent 
in dealing with men and measures, and by removing the 
care for the means of subsistence, enabling him to devote 
his time to the attainment of aims more worthy of human 
ambition, than the mere accumulation of pelf. With the 
exception of a few years of his life, when he was wretchedly 
poor, ho was alwa3's able to earn enough to live in comfort, 
if not in affluence, and that without making any sacrifice 
of principle. His tastes were very simple. He was 
generous and charitable to the extent of his means, and at 
times far beyond the point justified by his means. He was 



27 

sensitive touching his commercial obligations and it pleased 
him to hear men say that they rather took his word than 
another man's bond. At one time of his life, in order to 
save a friend and relative from embarrassments, which 
might have become very serious in their consequences, he 
sacrificed not only all that he had accumulated up to that 
time, but also pledged his surplus earnings for many 
years to come. He discharged all these obligations in 
' the course of time. His experience in aiding others 
was very discouraging. With one or two exceptions 
he was compelled to take up all commercial paper which 
he had indorsed for the accommodation of others. With 
one or two exceptions he paid the damages on every bond 
which he had signed as surety for others, and what is more 
paid them alone, as his cosureties raised technical objec- 
tions, which he declined to do. The aggregate of money 
paid by him, on account of other people's default in meet- 
ing their obligations, would have been sufficient to keep 
himself and his family in comfort for ten years and more. 
The recklessness with which people repudiated this class of 
obligations, and the base ingratitude with which they treated 
benefits conferred, finally embittered him- and made him 
more chary of his generosity, although I may say in justice 
to him, that he regretted the loss of confidence in his fellow 
men more, than he regretted the loss of the money, even 
though he could ill afford the loss of the latter, being a 
man of rather limited means. 

In his intercourse with his fellow men Roderick was self- 
assertive, but thoroughly democratic. Since he had no 
crinsfino; reo;ard for either the wealth or the station of the 
men with whom he came in contact, he could deal 
with those above, and those below him in the social scale 
on a footing of perfect equality. He did this without any 
apparent effort, and hence while his doing so was appre- 
ciated by his inferiors, it never was resented by his 
superiors. This trait in his character and conduct on his 



28 

part was probably the main cause of his popularity with 
all classes, and contributed materially to his professional 
success. 

HIS MORBID AMBITION IN EARLY YOUTH. 

Looking back at the period of his early youth, I con- 
ceive that Roderick was morbidly ambitious. Ili.s ambi- 
tion was not directed toward the attainment of any par- 
ticular aim, but the thought that he should pass away 
without his name being remembered by tliose coming after 
him, was intensely painful to him. Often he lay awake 
durino the night thinking about this, and often he brooded 
over it during the day, until he became so despondent as to 
be driven to the verge of suicide. During that period of 
his life he would have been willing to undergo the keenest 
bodily and mental suffering simply to perpetuate his fame, 
and martyrdom of any kind had no terrors for him. The 
tale of Ilerostratus, who committed the most sacrilegious 
crime, preferring to perpetuate his name in infamy rather 
than die unknown, made a deep impression on him, and I 
suspect that the young man rather sympathized with the 
crackbrained Greek. Roderick commenced to write verses 
when almost a child, in hopes of developing into a great 
poet. "When he attended the military school he had 
visions of himself as a great chieftain leading the people 
against its oppressors. When he grew to man's estate, 
and realized that he had neither the genius nor the in- 
dustry and perseverance to accomplish anything very ex- 
traordinary in life, he parted from his early visions. Yet 
the parting was very painful, as the following lines would 
indicate, which he then wrote, and not inappropriately 
designated as the saddest of all farewells : — 

The boy dreamt, full iilly dreamt he oft 
How strains breathing a more heroic Are 
Thau ever spranp from Tasso's harp, more soft 
Than ever trembled on Pctrarca's lyre 



29 



Should be his own ; He himself be the sire 

Of deeds heroic as of thoughts sublime 

And on fame's dizzy heights mount high and higher. 

His memory in adulating rhyme 

Be sent by praising bards to the remotest time. 

The man awoke. He found he lacked the power 

Given to minds pre-eminent, who mold 

To deathless deeds and thoughts the passing hour; 

Who seize occasion with a purpose bold 

And in their grasp a nation's history hold. 

Over the boy's bright dreams dark shadows fell 

Never to rise again. Visions of old, 

Reality has tolled your parting knell 

And part we must. — Forever fare you well. 



HIS JUDICIAL CAREER. 

It seems almost the irony of fate, that the only calling 
in which Eoderick achieved an unqualified success, was one 
for which he had no taste, and which he adopted mainly 
in deference to the wishes of his father. He had been at 
various times of his earlier life a farmer, a civil engineer, 
a merchant and a soldier, and in later years also a miner. 
In neither of these callings did he prove much of a success. 
He was, however, unquestionably a success as a lawyer, 
and if the testimony of his associates and contemporaries 
is to be credited, a phenomenal success as a judge. 

At the general election of 1863, among other State offi- 
cers, the judges of the courts of record in St. Louis 
County were to be elected. The county at that time in- 
cluded the city of St. Louis. One of the officers thus 
to be elected was the judge of the Law Commissioners 
Court, a court of limited jurisdiction in civil cases, but 
having exclusive appellate jurisdiction from justices of the 
peace in all such cases with the exception of land cases. 
Appeals from this court were direct to the Supreme Court, 
and although it was an inferior tribunal, it was, owing to 
the facts above stated, one of some importance and dig- 
nity. Since the war was still raging, and the practice of 



30 

law was anything but remunerative, Roderick decided to 
seek an elettion as judge of tills court. Tlie Republicau 
party, of wliicli lie was a member, was then tlie dominant 
party in the county, and had a majority of between three 
and four thousand votes, but it was split into factions who 
divided the vote almost equally. He could not secure the 
vote of both factions. As a compromise between the two 
factions where they differed in their nominees, the names 
of the candidates of both were printed on the same 
ticket, and the voter declared his choice by erasing the 
name of the one. This was not a very cheerful outlook, 
since in case of an approximately even division of the 
vote, both Republican nominees were bound to be defeated 
by their Demotratic competitor. 

Roderick saw the necessity of making an active personal 
canvass (the first and last of that kind he ever made), to 
which, in company with a personal friend, who was an 
adroit politician, he devoted all his time and energy for 
many weeks. He drank with the husbands and fathers, 
and danced with the wives and daughters on all conceiva- 
ble occasions. He made the personal acquaintance of the 
rural population, and gained their confidence by discussing 
topics with them in which they were mainly interested, and 
he succeeded in gaining the support of the army vote, then 
quite a factor. At the final poll it was found that he had 
distanced his competitor, on the Republican ticket, by beat- 
intj him twentv to one, and that he led his Democratic 
competitor by over three thou-aud votes. Thence and 
thereafter he was looked upon as a very popular man, and 
became quite a power in politics. Roderick at that time 
had just passed the constitutional age of thirty, was the 
youngest judge of a court of record in the State of Mis- 
souri, and was so youthful in appearance that he was forced 
to carry his baptismal certificate with him, to satisfy the 
incredulous of his ehgibility. 

Having been successful he at once set about to show that 
he was worthy of the confidence so freely bestowed on 



31 

him. The affairs of the court were in a frightful con- 
dition, and its reputation was about as low as could be. 
The courtroom itself was a dingy hole of limited dimen- 
sions. He caused it to be enlarged and its interior to be 
reconstructed in a manner that it served as a model for the 
reconstruction of other courtrooms in the same building. 
Several hundred appeal cases had accumulated on the 
docket, and were not set for trial, because the docket fee 
in them, to which the clerk was entitled, had not been 
paid. He caused the clerk to waive the prepayment of the 
docket fee, and to set all these cases for trial at the next 
term of court, and caused notice to be given to all litigants 
that no trial would be postponed without good cause. He 
first established the noon recess (courts formerly sitting 
from ten to three without intermission), and kept his court 
in session from nine to one, and from two to six o'clock. 
He caused circular letters to be printed, at his own ex- 
pense, instructing justices of the peace in their duties in 
the trial of causes, and encouraging them to call upon him 
personally for advice. His innovations were at first looked 
upon with distrust, but when their effect became manifest 
they were applauded. The result was that within one year 
after he assumed the duties of his office, the docket was 
cleared of all old cases, the court was looked upon as a 
model court, and no appeal was thereafter dismissed for 
informality in granting or perfecting it, or for insufficiency 
of the transcript. The discipline of the court was severe, 
and during the first year of his official term both officials 
of the court and lawyers were fined heavily. The best evi- 
dence that these fines were justly imposed, is the fact that 
the parties thus punished were among his most devoted 
supporters in after years. 

Under the jDrovisions of the Constitutional Ordinance of 
March 7, 1865, in force May 1, 1865, all judges of courts 
of record in the State of Missouri were ousted from their 
offices. He was at once reappointed by the Governor and 
continued to hold the office until the court was abolished 



32 

hy act of December 19, 1805, in force January 1, 1866, 
■which created the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, com- 
posed of three judges, and ul)olished the Common Pleas 
Court, Land Court, and Law Commissioners' Court. 

In March, 1867, Judge Moody of the Circuit Court of 
St. Louis County, resigned, while articles of impeachment 
were pending against him, and Roderick was appointed by 
the Governor to fill the vacancy thus caused, and at once 
entered upon the duties of his office. In 1868 he was re- 
nominated by acclamation and was elected, leading the 
judicial ticket. The terms of the three judges of the 
court were determined b}' lot, and he drew the short term 
of two years. In 1870 he was again renominated by the 
liberal wing of the Republican party, but was defeated 
by a combination between the regular Republicans and 
Democrats. 

Ilis associates on the Circuit Bench during his first term 
were much older men than himself. The court under the 
then law acted as a trial court in special term and as a 
court of appeals in general term. His radical and posi- 
tive views in the administration of justice, were first 
looked upon with distrust by his more conservative asso- 
ciates. This distrust, however, soon yielded to confidence, 
and before the expiration of one year his views in case of 
disagreement became controlling. He continued to main- 
tain that position both in the Circuit Court, and afterward 
in the Court of Appeals. Among more than four thousand 
appeal cases which the latter court decided during his 
official term as a member of that court, it is doubtful 
whether his dissent is noted, in more than one in one 
thousand, the opinions of the court in all others 
reflecting his views. 



33 

During his entire judicial career, his relations to his 
associates, as well as to members of the bar, young and 
old, were of the pleasantest nature. His retirement from 
the bench on, both occasions was the source of general 
regret. 

The following incidents will fully illustrate the relations 
existing between himself, his associates on the bench and 
his fellow members of the bar. When he left the circuit 
bench he was tendered a banquet, on which occasion Mr. 
Sam'l T. Glover, then the recognized leader of the St. 
Louis bar, presided, and addressed him as follows: — 

Judge Rombauer : 

You behold around you a large assembly of gentlemen, 
composed of members of the St. Louis bar, and others, 
your fellow citizens. 

This assemblage, I am directed to say to you, has met in 
your name. This social scene, this elegant repast of which 
we are soon to partake, has been provided by friends to do 
honor to you. 

It is tendered, sir, as a small memorial of the confidence 
and respect with which you are regarded by this bar and by 
the community. Its purpose is to say to you in modest, 
unostentatious and truthful terms, that during the years in 
which you eat on the bench of the Circuit Court of St. 
Louis County, you filled the place of an industrious, 
faithful, learned and just judge. 

You will allow me to add that in my opinion of all posi- 
tions under government, that of judge is least desirable for 
its worldly emoluments, while no other is so full of labor 
and responsibility. True, the judiciary has an equal rank 
with the other departments of the government. True, it 
is set forth in the constitution as a co-ordinate department. 
It demands the highest order of talent and the greatest 
culture. Undoubtedly its toils are incessant, and its value to 
the State incapable of estimation. 

But alas for its honor and influence our American judici- 

3 



34 

ary is the feeblest power in the State. In a million of peo- 
ple you will find probably only ten or twenty judges. This 
is the whole great judiciary department of the constitution. 
The legislative and executive powers, wielding the patron- 
age and wealth of the community, attract the gaze of the 
multitude, and impress the popular mind, with a transcen- 
dent force. These are surrounded by a throng of followers, 
•who shout continually in their ears the notes of praise and 
adulation. 

The judiciary has no favors to bestow. The judge has 
no retainers, no followers at his heels. His labors are 
mostly performed out of sight, and are unappreciated when 
performed. It is the business of ignorance and impudence 
to misapprehend and misrepresent his ablest and purest 
judgments. Even when the unprincipled charlatan assails 
his motives, he dares not defend himself. 

Is it a wonder that the judiciary should not, as a depart- 
ment of the State, possess influence enough to secure 
a salary equal to the rewards of labor in any other place of 
toil? "We who inhabit the walls of yonder court house, 
who know something of the work our judges do, and that 
no such endless exhausting work is done elsewhere, can 
appreciate the measure of justice, which the other depart- 
ments have meted out to our brethren of the bench. 

But, sir, I forget. I am only to welcome you here to 
night, which I do most cordially. The reward of judicial 
labor here, I believe, consists mainly in that mental training 
which elevates and adorns the man, thouirh it may not im- 
prove his estate; and in that sense of gratification which 
follows upon the memory of great and arduous duties well 
performed. All these we know are yours. 

To this address Eoderick replied as follows: — 

Mr. President and my Worthy Friends : 

I thank 3'ou for your kind words, and for this well at- 
tended funeral. I thank you for this revival of ancient 
customs in an improved form. Thousands of years ago 



35 

there lived a people, and when one of their number died his 
friends assembled to speak his praises and to drink his 
wine — but himself — he before whom the smiling genius 
had walked with torch reversed — was far away. Not so 
to-day. You meet and rejoice because one of your friends 
has gone to what you deem compared to where he was, 
elysian fields, but more generous than your model among 
the ancients, you invite him to hear his praises and to drink 
your wine. 

And yet, my friends, why should I hide by these pleas- 
antpies my real thoughts. They are but a tinsel that badly 
covers the somber colors that lie beneath. I tell you truly 
that when the officer this morning proclaimed the day, a 
day on which another than myself shall take the vacant 
chair, I felt that it was the second great parting of my life. 

Nineteen years ago I stood on the deck of an emigrant 
ship, far east, in a northern sea. Before me lay the vast 
expanse of an ocean that separates two continents ; behind 
me the peaks of the Shetland Islands, glowing red in the 
rays of a setting sun. Slowly our ship floated into the 
vast waters, and the night. Standing upon the deck, I 
turned and looked eastward until the darkness and the dis- 
tance hid the land, and then a feeling of sadness and deso- 
lation came over me. It was the last land of Europe that 
I saw, and the last that I am ever likely to see again. The 
wooded hills among which I spent my childhood days ; the 
college green with its merry faces ; the silent churchyards, 
resting-places of my departed friends, all seemed to crowd 
around me as for a last farewell. 

Before me lay a future more promising and more re- 
munerative — boy though I was, I felt that well, but behind 
me lay the places grown dear by many memories — places 
that I should never see again. 

Many years have passed since then. I became a citizen 
of another land than the land of my birth, and of my own 
free choice another mother's loving son. She is a step- 
mother to me no longer, if she ever was. The people of 



36 

this land have long since become my people ; my sympa- 
thies are theirs above all others, my first and only national 
allegiance is due to them. Looking back through the dis- 
tance of years, I can hardly recognize the boy that stood 
upon that deck more than nineteen years ago, and yet that 
scene returns to me at times with all its grandeur and all 
its intense memories. 

It returned to me to-day. The parting of to-day recalled 
the parting of the long ago, so dissimilar and yet so much 
alike. To you it is but the going of one man and the 
coming of another, but to me it is the leaving of a Morld, 
though but fancy built, which the habit of years has 
made my own, and the entering of another whose ways 
and manners I have almost forgotten. To me it is the scv- 
eriuj; of relations that shall never return again — it is the 
leaving of a place which, with all its toil and all its drudg- 
eries, was made dear to me by the uniform confidence of 
those whoso confidence I value most highly. 

Before me lies a future more promising, perhaps a wider 
field and one more remunerative ; but behind me, in that 
fancy world, lie places endeared by many memories, places 
that I shall never see again ; and wliile the regret that ac- 
companies the parting may not bo lasting, it is a regret no 
less. 

My friends, for your kindness, extending through many 
years, I have the first opportunity to thank j'ou here to- 
day. 1 am well aware that whatever success may have 
accompanied my judicial life and judicial labors is duo in a 
great measure to the earnest support which on all occasions 
you gave to me. The uniform courtesy and deference 
with which you always treated one weaker in opinion and 
much younger in years than many of you ; the indulg- 
ence which made you overlook his shortcomings when, 
often tired out by labors, he l)ecame fretful and irritable, 
and failed to be what he endeavored to be, strictly just 
towards you — all these call not only for my thanks on 



37 

this occasion, but they call for more, and I shall answer 
the call. 

If there is one among those here assembled who thinks 
that I have wronged him, I extend my hand to him and ask 
his forgiveness, though the wrong done may have been ever 
so unintentional. If there are any among you, either here 
or away, who have wronged me, be the wrong forgiven now, 
because as I enter again a brother among you, brothers of 
the profession, I intend to be more than a brother in name 
only. I intend to be a brother in deed, and to begin my 
brotherly labors to-night by brotherly lecturing. 

Members of the St. Louis bar, you are not in your 
relations towards each other what you ought to be. You 
are kind and courteous towards each other, but it is the 
kindness and courtesy of strangers more than that of 
brothers — a kindness which, like the polar sun, is bright 
but emits no animating heat. You never meet except 
it be at a funeral of some sort or another, to pass 
resolutions, or to drink the health of your departed 
brother. You have no association for a common ob- 
ject, except a coalition store, for the purpose of obtain- 
ing your merchandise cheap — a store which you and I call 
a law library. Your position in the community is that of 
many isolated reeds, easily broken, one by one, and not 
that of the bundle that resists the efforts of the most 
powerful, and whenever you attempt temporarily to unite 
for a common purpose, you usually fail. 

Why should this be so? The truth is, that in following 
your individual pursuits you have lost sight of your common 
duties and common aims ; that you have, in a measure, for- 
gotten that they exist, because you have no time and place 
for their discussion and for their cherishing. 

The lawyer in a democratic country is the keeper of the 
sovereign's will, and ought of necessity be its guide. Every 
complaint that is made of bad and ineffective laws is a silent 
reproach to the profession, that does not make the laws. 



38 

but' that possesses the power to see to it that the proper 
ones are made, and yet fails to use it. 

Members of the St. Louis bar, I speak to you thus l)o- 
cause the occasions when I can address so many of you 
togther are but rare. If what I say to-night will lead to a 
closer affiliation between yourselves; if it will lead to work 
commencing with law reform in this commonwealth, but 
exercising and extending its influence far beyond, then shall 
I feel indeed that you have done me an honor to-night for 
which I shall feel grateful while I live. 

We are a nation of many States, and yet we are but one 
people, of a common language, a common mixture of races, 
and a common development, inhabiting in common a mod- 
erate zone, — and yet how dissimilar are our laws. No 
merchant can safely enter into a contract to be performed 
beyond the limits of this State, without familiarizing him- 
self to some extent with the laws of the State where the 
contract is to be performed. No man can receive or make 
a transfer of realty, without learning the law of the State 
•where the realty is situated. One cannot even marry a 
girl — unless she be an old maid — without ascertaining 
whether she is of age by the laws of the State where she 
lives, for fear that he might conmiit a misdemeanor by 
marrying her without the consent of her legal custodians. 

"Why should this be so? Surely on subjects of a general 
nature, where the law is to affect a people of a common 
climate, of a common mixture of races, and of a common 
development — the best law must be one and the same. 

Why then i'^ it not the same? Because there is no com- 
mon aim, and no common effort on the part of those who 
alone are familiar with the laws and their diversity, to 
remedy the evil. 

And yet the evil can and ought to be remedied, and could 
easily be remedied by affiliation of members of the bar. 

These are not tlieorios whereof I speak. Work of a 
similar character has been and is now being practically 



39 

tested with success. There was a people of a common race 
and yet of many States far in the East. Their laws had 
but one common foundation as ours, but their legiskition 
was widely diversified; so that in many respects their 
laws became entirely dissimilar. A few years ago the peo- 
ple of these States commenced to hew themselves into one 
nation by the sword, and they are hewing at it yet with 
good success. But long before that time the influence of 
their lawyers was at work, associations for similarizing 
their laws were formed, under more unfavorable circum- 
stances than ours, and worked successfully. So that the 
cementing by common laws had far progressed, before the 
cementing by blood began. 

Gentlemen, I desire to take no advantage of your fam- 
ished condition by urging this subject any farther, lest you 
plead " duress " hereafter; but I hope that all those that 
are willing to aid in a closer affiliation of the members of 
our bar, that it may work in future with a common will, 
for a common aim, will pledge me in a glass of wine. 

Roderick's remarks on this occasion gave rise to an ex- 
tended discussion of the propriety of establishing a Na- 
tional Bar Association, whose aim it should be to bring 
about among a variety of other needed reforms in the law* 
a greater uniformity in the legislation of the various States 
on subjects of common interest. Thus he can claim with 
propriety that he was partly instrumental in calling such 
an organization into life. The St. Louis Bar Association, 
that of the State of Missouri and almost every other State, 
as well as that of the United States, had their origin sub- 
sequent to 1871. In fact the St. Louis Bar Association 
was to some extent his creation, he being one of the most 
active charter members. 

The Constitution of Missouri of 1875 established the 
St. Louis Court of Appeals. Roderick was one of a com- 
mittee of three, who prepared the draft for that measure. 
The term of the three judges of that court appointed by 



40 

the Governor expiring on the first ^londav of Janunrr, 
1877, he was nominated by the judicial convention of the 
Kepublican party, at the general election of 187G, by 
acclamation for one of these positions. The convention 
went farther, and conferred upon him the heretofore 
unheard-of honor, of permitting him to name one of his 
associates, and he named Mr. Henry Hitchcock of the St. 
Louis Bar. The ticket thus nominated was, however, 
defeated by a party vote. In 1884 he was again nom- 
inated by acclamation, by the judicial convention of the 
same party, and was elected by an overwhelming vote, 
althouirh several candidates on the same ticket were 
defeated. 

He continued to hold the office for a period of twelve 
years, and was for nine years the presiding judge of the 
court. His opinions appear in the printed Missouri Appeal 
Keports in volumes from 16 to 68 both inclusive and speak 
for themselves. In March, 189G, an address was presented 
to him signed by nearly every prominent lawyer in the 
judicial district, as follows: — 

St. Locis, Mo., March 12, 1896. 
Hon. Roderick E. Rombauer: 

Dear Sir — Among the judicial offices to be filled at 
the general election in November next will be that of a 
Judge of the St. Louis Court of Appeals, your term 
of office as such expiring on December 31, 1896. 

The undersigned, members of the Bar of that Court, 
without distinction of party, earnestly desire that you 
should continue to hold that important position. They 
well know, and highly appreciate the ability, fidelity and 
integrity with which during the past eleven years you have 
fulfilled its duties. 

Your published opinions, distinguished by sound learning, 
vigor of style, clear and accurate reasoning, and marked 
independence, have won for you a well-deserved reputation 
not only as an accomplished jurist, but as an upright 



41 

and impartial Judge ; while your kindly and considerate 
demeanor has maintained the most cordial relations with 
the members of the Bar. 

The permanence of our institutions and the welfare 
of our people cannot be assured, except by the independ- 
ence and high character of the Judiciary. 

In view of the qualities which your public services 
have demonstrated, the undersigned cordially and earnestly 
unite in asking your consent to be a candidate for the 
office above mentioned. 

He was renominated by the Republican Judicial Con- 
vention in 1896, although he was absent in Europe when the 
Convention met, and made no personal effort whatever to 
secure the nomination. He was defeated, however, in the 
election by a combination of the Democratic and Populist 
vote against him. 

It was always gratifying to him to be treated by the 
opposition press with greut com*tesy and consideration, 
and that even at times when party feeling ran very high. 
The following editorials published in leading Democratic 
journals at the time of his last canvass are significant : — 

IFrom the St. Louis Bepuhlic of May 22, 1896.2 
The movement of the St. Louis bar for the renomina- 
tion of Judge Roderick E. Rombauer is the natural 
outcome of the great respect entertained by the profession 
for his remarkable learning and judicial ability. Judge 
Rombauer' s equal in extent of research would be hard to 
find in Missouri or in any other State. The bar unani- 
mously concede him a place in the very highest circle of the 
learned in the law, and has as much confidence in his 
insight as in his learning. 

Judge Rombauer enjoys a splendid reputation both as 
a lawyer and a jurist. His concentrative power and his 
essentially analytical mind have been strikingly exemplified 
during his long and brilliant career on the bench. He has 
proved a just and impartial Judge, while his personal 



42 

character and integrity have always been of the highest. 
The extent of his researches into and his profound knowl- 
edge of civil law have earned for him a proud eminence 
which few have attained. 

IFrom the St. Louit Post-Dispatch of May 22, IS 96.'] 

Members of the St. Louis bar, regardless of party affilia- 
tions, have called upon Judge Rombauer to stand for re- 
election. The bar, in this case, voices the sentiment of 
the community. Judge Rombauer's standing as a jurist is 
equaled by his standing as a citizen. The call, and the 
response, appearing in this issue of the Post-Dispatch^ are 
conclusive. The election in Nf)veml)er will be an addi- 
tional tril)ute to the private worth and public service of a 
good man. 

The relations which existed between himself and his 
associates on the bench will appear in part from the 
following: When Judge Thompson, after leaving the 
bench, completed his exhaustive Commentaries on the 
Law of Private Corporations, he addressed to him the 
following letter : — 

June 4, 1895. • 
My Dear Judge Rombauer : 

My publishers will hand you a copy of my work on 
Private Coi-porations. Three volumes of it are now issued, 
and will be delivered to you together, and the others 
will follow about two months apart. 

I offer this trifling gift in memory of the eight years 
during which we wore associated together, as judges of the 
same court. I fool that I am offering it to one of the 
first, if not to the very first, of the lawyers of Missouri, 
and that, extensive as it is, your attainments are such 
that you will not l)e able to learn much out of it. I reflect 
also upon the great advantage, in an educational point 
of view, which I derived from my official association 



43 

with you. Your tuition was thorough, and your discipline 
severe, and the training which I received under you — if I 
may so put it — contributed materially to the formation 
of more accurate habits of thought on my part, and 
to make me a better lawyer than I otherwise would 
have been. 

Very truly yours, 

Seymour D. Thompson. 

Two years after this when Eoderick's appointment to a 
position as Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States 
was strongly urged, Judge Thompson wrote to a mutual 
friend who was supposed to have considerable influence 
with the national administration as follows : — 

My Dear Sir : 

A number of the friends of Hon. Eoderick E. Rom- 
bauer have conceived the idea of bringinar his merits 
to the attention of the President in view of a pos- 
sible vacancy on the Federal bench. You will, per- 
haps, recall that I was a judicial associate of Judge 
Rombauer for eight years in the St. Louis Court of 
Appeals. You will possibly conclude from this circum- 
stance that I am qualilied to speak of his merits as a law- 
yer, a judge and a man. He has had a judicial career in 
Missouri, which, though not continuous, aggregates about 
twenty years. He had a good foundation for such a 
career in the fact of being a graduate of the Dane Law 
School of Harvard University. He was elected to the 
bench in St. Louis as soon as he had arrived at the legal 
age to qualify him for that office. He served a term as 
Judge of the Law Commissioners Court of St. Louis, 
another term as Judge of the Circuit Court; and then, 
after a considerable interval of practice at the bar, which 
was only in the most important causes, and which was very 
successful, he was induced to become a candidate for 
the office of Judge of the St. Louis Court of Appeals, 



44 

which, it may not be known to non-residents, is one of 
the two appellate courts of the State of Missouri, 
subordinate in some particulars only to the Supreme 
Court. Ho was elected by a greatly increased vote over 
the vote which was received by the candidates for political 
and administrative offices on his party ticket. He served 
for twelve years as a judge of that court, the last nine 
years of which he was presiding judge. He was renom- 
inated by a judicial convention of the Republican party, 
but was defeated of re-election at the last election, though 
he again ran considerably ahead of the party ticket. His 
renomination was promoted by the best lawyers of his ap- 
pellate district without distinction of party. In some of 
the meetings held by those lawyers for the purpose of 
bringing him forward as a non-partisan candidate, the 
opinion was freely expressed, that he was the best appel- 
late judge in this State. I doubt whether it would be 
saying too much in his behalf to express the opinion that 
he is the best appellate judge that ever was in this State. 

His character as a judge is distinguished by an absolute 
impartiality and utter indifference to the question who the 
parties to a litigation before him may be; the firmest 
determination to decide every question according to the 
settled rules and principles of law, and where those rules 
and principles are unsettled, according to the right of the 
case, without regard to whether his conclusion may hurt or 
help stranger or friend. 

Judge liombauer's work while on the St. Louis Court of 
Appeals was not only distinguished by its quality but by 
its quantity. He turned out a phenomenal amount of 
work in a court which was always overcrowded, and all his 
work was of a very high grade. I need not say to you who 
have known Judge Rombauer longer than I have, that he 
is held in the greatest reverence and esteem in the com- 
munity where he has so long lived. As a citizen his 
character is of the very highest ; as a politician he is a 
Republican, and, as such, a healthy partisan, lirm but 



45 

enlightened; as a lawyer, he is strong and diligent; as a 
Judge he is upright, firm, impartial, learned and 
laborious ; — in fact he is a strong man — an exalted 
character — a great judge. His appointment to the Fed- 
eral bench would ornament and strengthen it. 

Yours very respectfully, 

Seymour D. Thompson. 

It was the ambition of his later years to wind up his 
Judicial career on the bench of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, which he considered the highest judicial 
tribunal in the civilized world. Unfortunately while 
selections for members of that bench are always made by 
the administration, with painstaking care, they are de- 
termined by political considerations no less than by merit. 
Roderick was always far too independent in his political 
views, to entitle him to count on the sincere support of 
professional politicians. 

Having thus shown what others thought about his quali- 
fications and work as a judge, it is proper to add what he 
himself thought of the judicial position. He was always 
in favor of a thoroughly non-partisan judiciary. In every 
political convention in which he participated as a delegate, 
he opposed party nominations for judicial offices. In one, 
over the deliberations of which he presided himself, he 
declined to cast his vote as a delegate, although the vote 
was equally divided between two candidates, and one of 
them was his personal friend. Although he was himself 
repeatedly nominated by political conventions, he informed 
them that he treated such nominations simply as indorse- 
ments of his previous nomination by the bar. Among 
the many public declarations made by him at various times 
one is here inserted as emphasizing his views on the 
subject : — 

The many friends and admirers of the Hon. David 
R. Francis, did, on the retirement of that gentleman 



46 

from the office of Governor of Missouri, tender him a 
complimentary banquet January 16, 1893. On that 
occasion Roderick was selected by the committee of 
arrangements, to reply to the following toast: 

"The Judiciary — "Without an upright Judiciary no 
free institutions can exist — With it they will never perish.' 

He was introduced by Judge Thayer, Circuit Judge 
of the United States, with the following kind words: — 

We have with us to-night a gentleman who has long 
held, who now holds, and I trust long will hold, a high 
judicial station in this city and State. He has so borne 
himself, both at the bar and on the bench, as to command 
in the highest degree the respect and confidence both 
of lawyers and laymen. I accordingly propose as the next 
toast "The Judiciary," and I call ui)on the lion. R. E. 
Rombauer, Judge of the St. Louis Court of Appeals, 
to respond to the sentiment. 

To which call Roderick responded as follows : — 

Mr. Chairman: 

I cannot on this occasion truthfully repeat to you the 
historic remark, "I thank you for pointing to mo." I 
would have thanked you if you had pointed to some one 
else. My oratorical efforts for many years past have been 
confined to informing eloquent counsel appearing before 
me, that their time was up, and to some memorial remarks 
when officially informed that some other eloquent counsel's 
time was up forever. I cannot utilize the practice thus 
acquired on the present occasion. The honored guest of 
the evening has been infoniied already, several days ago, 
that his time was up, and memorial remarks touching him 
are out of the question, because we all realize in the ex- 
pressive phrase of the eloquent hibernian, that it is only 
the smallest part of his future that lies behind him. If, 
therefore, in what I say, I shall depart from the traditional 



47 

line of banquet hall remarks, please ascribe it to the fact 
that I am a stranger to its customs and demands. 

I shall speak of the subject assigned to me in the fol- 
lowing order: What is the judiciary, and what has it 
done for us? What have we done for it, and how has it 
borne our treatment? What should we do for it, to pre- 
serve its usefulness, and thereby, as the toast offered so 
fitly expresses it, preserve our free institutions. 

All Missourians know, having been thus informed from 
time to time, that the welfare of the people is the sovereign 
law. We have emblazoned that motto under the device 
on the coat of arms of our State. We rejoice to see it on 
every commission issued to us under the seal of the State, 
and rejoice still more to see it on the checks which the State 
Treasurer issues to us from time to time. Another motto, 
with the characteristic modesty of a free people, proclaims, 
that the voice of the people is the voice of God. As 
the voice of the people is thus made infallible, and is 
naturally in support of its own welfare, the two expressions 
cover the same ground. The judiciary are the keepers and 
guardians of that voice and welfare of the people. It is 
true that on the arms of our State, two bears stand as 
guardians and keepers over the motto, but that may be 
owing to the fact, that in the opinion of the designers of 
the device, no truer symbolical representation of the 
judiciary could be made. 

Yet while the voice of the people is the sovereign law, 
law itself is but a rule of action, and until applied to 
particular persons and things is only a dead letter. 
Only when thus applied does it become a living rule, 
entering; into and affectino; the minutest details of our 
lives. The judiciary therefore are charged not only to 
guard the law but to apply it. From the earliest days 
of the common law the judiciary have listened to this 
voice of the people, and have given effect to it as a 
living rule of action. They have hstened to it when the 
voice was so feeble and indistinct that it could scarce be 



48 

heard. They have collected it from all parts of the realm. 
They have applied it to the rai)idly changing conditions 
brought about by progressive civilization, and have always 
applied it in the interest of hbcrty and good government. 
Like the priests of the Zend-Avesta, they have maintained 
and nourished the holy fire, until the spark of liberty grew 
into a mighty Hame, cheering and brightening the lives of 
the foremost nations of two continents. They never hesi- 
tated when it was needed to oppose to tyranny an uncom- 
promising front, even at the peril of their lives. If the 
scaffold numbers fewer judicial martyrs, than martyrs of 
religious faith, it numbers some whose martyrdom was 
equally sublime. 

Under our peculiar frame of government on this con- 
tinent, both local and national, the task of the judiciary 
becomes more exacting. It becomes their duty to oppose 
the temporary will of the people itself, when they tind such 
will opposed to the formulated voice of the people, which 
is the law. It becomes their duty to prevent the encroach- 
ments of the national government on the government of 
the States, and of the latter on the former, and thus decide 
what we term constitutional questions. All this the judici- 
ary have done from the foundation of our government to 
the present time, fearlessly and with zeal and learning, 
thus doing their full share in building up a great empire in 
the interest of all its people. 

Now since our judiciary have done all these things for 
us, it is but fair to ask what have we done for them in 
return. Why, everything that can be reasonably expected. 
Knowing that mental labor is good for the body and soul, 
and that it is l)ctter to wear out than to rust out, we have 
loaded them down with work without end, and recjuircd 
them to dispose of it speedily and well. Knowing that 
overfeeding of the body interferes with accurate mental 
labor, we have taken care that their bodies should not 
be overfed, and thus have wisely coupled in their case, 
the maximum of mental exertion with the minimum of 



49 

financial remuneration. I wish to be understood dis- 
tinctly, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, that I speak on this 
subject as a historian and not as a critic. I do not wish to 
be understood as joining in the ill-advised clamor for an 
increase of judicial salaries. When, after many years of 
persistent effort on part of the citizens of St. Louis, a 
paternal government saw fit to change the compensation 
of the ofiice which you, Mr. Chairman, now fill with such 
distinguished ability, by increasing it from that corre- 
sponding with the compensation of the foreman of a shoe 
shop, to that corresponding with the compensation of a 
second rate clerk in a dry goods emporium, I doubted the 
wisdom of the move. 1 was fearful your frugal habits 
might become demoralized. That you might like Epicure 
or Lucullus become addicted to the pleasures of the table, 
and by overfeeding impair the accuracy of your mental pro- 
cesses. Nay, I was even fearful that in course of time you 
might be able to depart, and actually depart from the prim- 
itive simplicity of the fathers to such an extent as to place a 
carpet upon your floor. No, no, gentlemen, let us not join 
in this ill-timed clamor for an increase of judicial salaries. 
AYe have placed under the control of our judiciary, our lives 
and our property, and what is dearer to us, our honor and 
our liberty. Shall this unlimited confidence be estimated 
by the vulgar standard of dollars and cents? When we 
consider what we have confided to the judiciary already, it 
is to be wondered at, that we pay them anything at all in 
addition. 

But if anything more were needed to show the wisdom 
of our past policy in that regard, it is shown by its effect 
on the judiciary. The early simplicity of jthe fathers is a 
thing of the past. From a small and poor people we have 
grown into a wealthy and mighty empire. Our wealth has 
increased far beyond the increase in our numbers. This 
condition has almost unavoidably brought with it a partial 
corruption of our morals, and that corruption has invaded 

4 



50 

nearly all ranks and nearly all political and social institu- 
tions. It has insinuated itself into our legislative bodies, 
from the lowest municipal council to the most august body 
of the world, the Senate of the United States. "We can 
neither hide nor deny the evil, even though its extent 
may not be quite as great as suspicion and surmise pro- 
claim it to be. Nor are we singular in that respect. At 
this very moment the government of a free people 
across the ocean is upon trial for life, because its 
merchants and bankers, editors and representatives, sena- 
tors and ministers, have been victims of this cornipting 
cancer. Suspicion has even dared to attack its chief exec- 
utive, that worthy scion of an illustrious sire, as it dared 
once upon a time to attack our own chief executive, al- 
though we may safely predict that he will come out of the 
fiery furnace unscathed, as whilom did our own silent chief, 
siU'ut now forevcrmore. Yet in this sea of corruption on 
both sides of the ocean, one branch of the public service 
remained unquestiona})ly pure. The moneyed interests 
that are passed upon in our courts are measured by mil- 
lions, and represent the wealth of a nation, but the most 
daring calumny has recoiled from casting a breath of sus- 
picion upon the incorruptibility of our judiciary. Though 
members of all other departments may succumb and have 
succumbed, our judiciary has remained pure and undefilod. 
They have gone on in their unremitting labors unbought 
and unpurchasable, and when their members leave the 
bench at the termination of their judicial life, they leave it 
always covered with honor, and sometimes covered with 
rags. 

And yet I do not intend to go too far. There is one 
point in which even our judiciary has been charged to be 
vulnerable, and probalily justly so. It is one of our weak- 
nesscss that each political faction believes the well being 
of our venerable bird of freedom depends on the party 
ci\<^c in which he is housed. Judires are selected with re- 
gard to their view touching the proper caging of the bird 



51 

aforesaid. When we select a judge because he is a parti- 
san, we cannot expect that when he becomes a judge he 
will drop the partisan altogether. And yet it is the duty 
of the judge to declare the voice of all the people on every 
question that comes before him. There came questions 
at times before the highest tribunals of our land, on 
which its judges divided strictly according to their politi- 
cal tenets. This fact may have been matter of accident, 
but if so it was an unfortunate accident. Questions of that 
character are likely to come before our highest tribunals 
frequently, and with the increase in the complexity of 
such questions, their number is apt to increase. We are, 
in our mistaken party zeal, getting into the habit of ex- 
pecting that the judgment of the court will be in con- 
formity with the political views entertained by the 
members of the tribunal, or by their majority. The 
danger arising from this method of looking at things 
is not to be underrated. The very suspicion of bias in the 
judiciary on one question, breeds a suspicion of bias on 
other questions, and thus finally undermines that unlimited 
faith in the pure administration of the law, which is es- 
sential to the implicit obedience to judicial decrees, and as 
the toast so aptly expresses it, is essential to the perma- 
nency of our free institutions. 

Let me close with an illustration by way of an anecdote. 
Many years ago in a far-off land I saw an Indian. It was 
the first Indian whom I had ever seen. He was in a book. 
He wore leather stockings and was named accordingly. 
His head was overflowing with eagle feathers and his heart 
with noble sentiments. He told me his tale of woe and I 
extended my hand to him, and sat down with him on the 
banks of the blue Danube, and wept tears of compassion 
and sympathy. Years afterwards I saw the Indian again. 
It was in his home in the western hemisphere. He had 
come out of the book and was sitting on horseback. He 
were no leather stockings nor anything else worth mention- 
ing, but I thought I knew him by his bonnet of eagle 



52 

feathers which he still wore, and which was about all 
he wore. I extended my hand to him which he 
took. He also took everything else I h:id although I did 
not extend it to him, and when we parted he was the best 
dressed man of the two. I knew at once he was not the 
same Indian whom I had seen in the book. lie might have 
been his brother, but if he was, the moral family resem- 
blance, so to speak, was not very strong. I then sat me 
down on the banks of the yellow ^Missouri and wept tears 
of disappointment. I shed many tears, although I could 
ill afford to do so, because they represented the only drops 
of clear water within a radius of three hundred miles. 
James Fenimore Cooper, the most charming, and in the 
opinion of some, the most visionary writer of talcs, never 
-wrote up the character and history of a judge, but we all 
have written it in our heads and consciences as we conceive 
him to be, poor and industrious, pure and independent. 
There are many who think that even the present Indian 
once was as Cooper conceived him, and that if he became 
as I saw him on the "Western plain, the change was effected 
by the agency of his fellow man. "We all know that the 
judge of to-day still is in the main, at least, what we have 
conceived him to be. Let us beware that in days to come 
he may not by our agency, be as unlike to that conception 
as the real Indian of the plains is unlike to the Indian of 
the book. That he may never become so let us place him 
beyond temptation by want. Let us select him with a sole 
view to his ability and character, and spare no effort to 
build up and maintain an upright, able, fearless and non- 
partisaa judiciary, as the safest sheet anchor of our lib- 
erties. 

CALVARY. 

Tlic three memorial addresses here inserted are charac- 
teristic both of the relations existing between Roderick 
and his fellow members of the bench and bar, and of his 
views of the true functions of a lawyer and judge. They 



53 

are selected for that purpose from a number of similar ad- 
dresses delivered by him in the course of many years. 
Judge Eeber was one of his first associates on the Circuit 
bench, and Judge Madill was one of the last. Judge Gantt 
had preceded him as presiding judge of the St. Louis 
Court of Appeals. 

At the Eeber memorial meeting Roderick said : — 

Mr. Chairiman: 

To be thoroughly imbued with a love of justice, to pos- 
sess a sense of it so keen that it overshadows all feelings 
and prejudices of race and sex, kindred, friendship and 
party, is the first necessary element in the composition of 
a righteous judge. To have strong common sense, to pos- 
sess a fair familiarity with principles which underlie all 
law, and to have the moral courage to assert them on all 
occasions, and regardless of all consequences, is the next 
necessary element of a just and righteous judge. To have 
all these coupled with the industry which the work de- 
mands, and with that rare executive ability which enables 
one to dispose of the greatest amount of work in the least 
possible time, and still be able to give it all the care and 
investigation that the subject demands, makes up the sum 
total to constitute a righteous, just and successful judge in 
the higher sense of the term. 

If, therefore, I say of our departed friend that he has 
been a just and righteous and successful judge, I pass on 
him the highest encomium which in that station of life I 
can pass on anj^one. 

I have seen these qualities of his mind and moral nature 
subjected to tests which but few would have withstood, 
and come out victorious. I have seen them come in con- 
flict with his pride of opinion, and have seen his pride of 
opinion yield. I have seen them come in conflict with his 
party feeling under the most trying circumstances, but his 
party feeling did not for a moment make him hesitate or 



54 

halt, although the question was so close in some instances 
that his superiors found room to decide it the other way. 
In the time of the most violent commotions his tidelity to 
the fundamental laws of the Nation and State was never 
shaken. And yet Judge Reber was a man of strong indi- 
vidual opinion, both in politics and the law. No man can 
vouch for the latter better than myself. It so happened 
that for a long time we two were virtually, if not nom- 
inallv, the only judges of the Circuit Court at a time when 
all questions of law had to be passed on by the court in 
banc. No decision was possible unless we agreed, except 
in cases of appeal. The occasions were not rare when, on 
propositions of law submitted to us, we maintained differ- 
ent views, discussing them day after day, week after week, 
he maintaining one view and myself another, both equally 
positive, both equally unyielding, both impressed with the 
necessity of coming to some conclusion — while the at- 
torneys engaged in the case were, perhaps, wondering 
whether the judges ever would take the time to look at that 
case at all. 

(The speaker then cited an instance where Judge Reber 
had decided a case contrary to the views of his associate, 
and months thereafter, the same question again arising, 
voluntarily admitted his error and then proceeded.) 

Judt'e Reber had at that time been on the bench for 

c 

many years, while I was comparatively a novice. He was 
a much older man than myself and a better lawyer. His 
voluntary admission of error at that time taught me a les- 
son by which I endeavored to profit ever thereafter, and I 
have always been deeply grateful to hini for showing to me 
in this and other instances the true duty of a conscientious 
judo-e. The limited success which has fallen to my share, 
in administering justice, was owing, to a great extent, to 
his example and to the association with him ; and I shall 
never cease to add my voice to the universal aj)probation 
of his conduct while on the bench. 

There were other traits in Judge Reber's character which 



55 

should be held up for imitation to all men in his profession, 
and out of his profession, and in all stations of life. In 
an age and in the midst of a society when many deem it 
more important to seem what they are not, than to be what 
they seem, he was eminently sincere and free from all 
shams. In an age and in a society when and where there 
is, from day to day, a greater truckling to wealth, station 
and power, he was free from all servility and flunkeyism. 
He was far from being a violent man. In his disposition 
he was cautious and conservative. But he never hesitated 
to ex|3ress his opinion boMly touching measures and men, 
irrespective of the popular clamor which supported the 
first, or the station which made the latter formidable. He 
was not insensible to the good opinion of his fellow citi- 
zens, but it was distasteful to him to seek it by any vain- 
glorious display, and impossible for him to seek it by 
flatter}'. The great share of that good opinion which he 
has gained, he has gained by his sincerity, industry and 
incorruptible integrity alone. 

At the Madill memorial meeting, he said : — 

Mr. Chaik3la>j": 

I remember no instance during the forty-two years of 
my connection with the St. Louis bar, when the departure 
of one of our brethren has caused greater regret and sor- 
row than the recent death of George A. Madill. It may 
truly be said that the bare statement of the truth, the 
whole truth and nothing but the truth touching his charac- 
ter, his attainments, and his services to the profession and 
the community in which he lived, is as great a eulogy as 
ever has been, or ever will be spoken touching the hfe, 
character, and attainments of any of our professional 
brethren. His history, so far as we are all familiar with 
it, may be summarized in a few sentences. 

He came to St. Louis thirty-five years ago a strano-er, 
without friends and connections, and distressingly poor in 



56 

\rorldly means. He died a fen- days ago numbering friends 
bv the score and admirers by the thousands, rich in worldly 
means honestly acquired, but infinitely richer in the univer- 
sal love and esteem of his fellow citizens. He devoted the 
best years of his life to elevate the standard of the profes- 
sion, of which he himself was a bright ornament, by his 
labors at the bar, on the bench and in the lecture room, 
and bv lil^eral endowments of money. The sweetness of 
the memory which he left behind him is without the alloy 
of one bitter drop. I could speak of his merits for a long 
time and yet I could say no more. 

There are, however, two incidents connected with his 
history to which I shall briefly refer, because they furnish 
an object lesson to members of the bar, both young and 
old. When during the presidency of U. S. Grant, the 
then U. S. District Attorney in St. Louis resigned his posi- 
tion, an earnest effort was made by many prominent 
Republicans in this city to secure the office for Madill, 
then a young man comparatively unknown, and a Democrat 
in his political faith. This extraordinary compliment 
was soon thereafter followed by another, more success- 
ful in its results, and by one which was the marked 
beeinning of that brilliant professional career with which 
we are all familiar. One of the three judges of the St. 
Louis Circuit Court was about to resign. The circuit was 
composed of the City and County of St. Louis, and its po- 
litical complexion was overwhelmingly Republican. The 
presiding judge of the court, who was also Republican, did 
not believe in a partisan judiciary. He requested his asso- 
ciate to withhold his resignation until a s:itisfactor\- succes- 
sor could l)e selected, and, having secured that promise, he 
sent for Madill. He had never met Madill socially before 
that time, but the latter had made two arguments before 
him which were marked by great industry, accurate dis- 
crimination, and forcible analysis. He told Madill that he 
desired him to become his associate on the bench to take 
the place of the judge then about to resign. The young 



57 

lawyer modestly demurred, stating that lie was but little 
known, and that his election was impossible, since his 
party was in a hopeless minority in the circuit. It was 
with some difficulty that the older man secured Madill's 
consent to use his name as he saw fit. 

The presiding Judge then notified a number of promi- 
nent members of the St. Louis bar to meet him at a certain, 
time and place. When they met he informed them what 
he had done, and requested their aid in the election of !Ma- 
dill. Some knew the young lawyer and thought highly of 
him. All knew his qualifications before the meeting ad- 
journed, because they had faith in the discernment of their 
adviser, and knew that the matter was of vital importance 
to him. They all protested, however, that, owing to the 
political complexion of the circuit, the attainment of the 
desired result was impossible. The judge who called them 
together then showed them the way to accomplish it. The 
legal advisers of every newspaper in the city of St. Louis 
were members of the meeting. Every journal in the city 
before its next issue appeared was firmly co mmi tted against 
the call of a political convention and in favor of the candi- 
dacy of Madill. The associate resigned and those who had 
attended the meeting, with other members of the bar, 
signed a call on Madill to become an independent candidate. 
He did so, and was elected without opposition. 

Need I say that the judge who brought about this result 
never regretted what he had done. The Circuit Court at 
that time was both a trial and an appellate court, its docket 
was overcrowded and behind for years. Need I teU of the 
weary hours in which the two friends worked together, 
often late into the night, often on Sundays and holidavs 
when others rested, year in and year out, until the docket 
was finally cleared. The health of both was broken when 
they left the bench ; one went to the West and one to the 
South to recuperate . Both returned refreshed and resumed 
their former no less arduous labors at the bar. Need I 
speak for the survivor and say that, although he had many 



58 

associates on the bench, both before that time and since, 
he never had one more intt'llisrcnt, more faithful in his 
work, and more considerate in his conduct than George A. 
Madill. 

I know it is selfish to chiim precedence for individual 
grief, when a misfortune befalls an entire community. 
Yet there is one among you who claims it, who claims the 
right to say above many others, " faithful associate of my 
most arduous labors, faithful friend of a lifetime, farewell, 
may thy bright dreams of a future life be realized, and 
mayst thou there find additional reward for all the good 
that thou hast done while here below." 

In reply to the request of the St. Louis Bar to spread 
the resolutions passed on the occasion of Judge Thos. T. 
Gantt's decease, upon the records of the St. Louis Court 
of Appeals, Roderick said: — 

Mr. Bakewell: 

No more appropriate place can be found for preserving 
the tribute paid to the memory of Judge Gantt by his 
associates at the bar, than the records of a court which 
was partly his own creation, and over the deliberations of 
which he presided for years. No greater tribute can be 
paid to that memory, than the simple narrative of a faith- 
ful, useful and fruitful life, which is contained in these 
resolutions. To that tribute I can add but little beyond 
my indorsement. 

It was my privilege to have known Judge Gantt for over 
a quarter of a century, and to have known him well. I 
have mot him frequently in the trial of causes, and in his 
own refined home. I have spent many da\'s with him in 
the solitude of the great mountains of the West, where 
man seems to stand face to face with his Creator, and 
where it is said his true nature is best shown l)ecause it is 
stripped of all artificial covering. In every place and in 
every relation of life, I have found him faithful and fear- 



59 

less, a true gentleman of the old school, and the finest 
specimen of a type fast passing away. I believe the 
number of those who knew him well was limited, because 
he was naturally reserved, but none could know him well 
without loving and honoring him. In all things he did he 
sought the approval of his own conscience in preference to 
popular applause. I wish we had more men who would as 
fully realize as he did the truth of the saying of one of 
his favorite authors, that "he who seeks applause only 
from without, has his happiness in another's keeping." 

HIS WORK AS A PUBLIC SPEAKER. 

During that period of his life when he was more or less 
in the public eye, Roderick had frequent occasions to 
address large audiences on questions of public interest. 
While he was regarded as a forcible speaker, and partial 
friends considered him even eloquent, public speaking was 
always distasteful to him, and he engaged in it more as a 
matter of duty than one of inclination. His aversion was 
to some extent augmented by the fact that he spoke the 
English language with a marked foreign accent, which 
caused him some embarrassment when addressing: mixed 
audiences. He never spoke in public without an object he 
tried to further, nor without preparation, except in rare 
cases when he was called upon unexpectedly. Some of his 
public addresses are here given in chronological order, 
which, regardless of their merit in other respects, have a 
tendency of showing his views touching men, measures, 
and social conditions. 

In 1867 the trustees of Washington University in St. 
Louis established a law school. Among the annual func- 
tions was an address delivered to the graduating class by a 
member of the advisory board on commencement day. 
Roderick was selected by the Faculty to deliver this address 
to the first graduating class on May 10th, 1869, and spoke 
as follows : — 



60 

Graduates of the law class of 1869 ; I have been re- 
que:?ted on behalf of the advisory board of the law faculty 
to address to ycni a few words at the close of the exercises 
of to-dav — a few words of encouragrement and advice. It 
has not been my fortune to meet you all assembled face to 
face before to-day. I may never meet you so hereafter, 
and this makes me anxious that the few minutes I shall now 
consume, shall not by either of us be ranked hereafter 
with the dead and lost time of the past. 

Two years ago the managers of Washington University 
concluded to teach within their college halls a branch of 
learning heretofore untaught in public within this city, save 
in the courts. The enterprise was of doubtful success, 
and the managers did not deem it proper to invest means 
needed to carry on other branches of learning in its fur- 
therance. It became necessary to call upon men eminent 
in their profession to aid the new enterprise by a voluntary 
contribution of their learning and labor, and it was done. 

And, lo ! from the bench which they had graced for many 
years, and on which they had estal)lishcd a reputation not 
confined to this place or time — from the bar in whose 
ranks they had stood illustrious, and where substantial 
rewards had accompanied their labors — men came and de- 
voted themselves to the task, Avithout any other fee or 
reward, save the reward most grateful to noble minds, to 
see the rich grains of their intellect germ and bear fruit in 
other minds, and according to the wise law wliich governs 
the world of mind as distinguished from the world of 
matter, to grow richer while they gave. 

Gentlemen Graduates : I am here to-night to speak to 
you and not to them. But it is not to tluin but of them I 
speak, when I say that I am proud to claim fellowship in a 
profession which brings forth such men. It is not to them 
l)ut of them I speak, when I say that by devoting the few 
free hours of the day left to them by the arduous labors 
of their profession, to the ])ropagation of science instead 
of their own recreation, they have earned the thanks of 



61 

this community and of this commonwealth. It is not to 
them, but of them and of you I speak, when I say that if 
the complete success of the result can add to the merit of 
their labors, let the addition be made to-day. 

I speak advisedly. Though I speak but as one of iliQ 
exaininhig and advisory board, in this matter I speak for 
them all. At the request of your professors we have sub- 
jected you to an examination of several days' duration, far 
exceeding in thoroughness and severity the examination of 
students in this branch of learning at any other school in 
the United States. We have tested your powers of reason- 
ing by requiring of each of you a dissertation on some sub- 
ject in the law, and have carefully examined the theses so 
furnished. The examinations were conducted in a manner 
calculated to test not only your book learning, but also the 
analj'zing faculty of your minds. Throughout all these 
trials you have acquitted yourselves well, some excellently 
well — none below mediocrity. I have taken the measure 
of law classes in my college days, and can say that yours 
compares favorably with all that I have ever known. 

Your college days have closed ; your life as students has 
begun ; you have chosen a profession wherein study 
should never cease, wherein it can never cease but 
at the sacrifice of success. The elements you have 
acquired — their practical application you will have to 
learn, and will learn from time to time. Their practical 
application, I say, because the true answer to the most in- 
tricate question in the law can be found by the correct 
application of elementary principles. 

Let me therefore here advise you to follow this method 
in your future studies : Never to believe you know what 
the law is in any given case until you know all the elements 
which make it the law ; never to hunt for decisions to teach 
you what the law is, but to establish what the law is first 
in your own mind, and then to look up the decisions to 
support it. Decisions will change if imperfect declarations 
of the law, but the true law never — except in its applica- 



Immu Piktient i>?$«arvh mar in manj ca$e<$, if iiot in all, 
■■tinglf tii« Bw uiwG of the mo^l intriv^te ^ 'ut the 
kwa •d gwi 'Wfpon of axuklyzing thought a^ . ^e with 

one Idotr thrvmgh the Gonlian knot. 

B«m1 sfevfy^ vhatever you rvskd. :ii:d not too mneh. 
The nund, Bke the body, gadns its nurriiiv^n in |>n>portii>n 
to the food di^^ted. and not in prv^;x^r::on to the food 
CMSOiiMd. It is not memory that makes a lawyer, but 
jn^gMBftl. Orer-reading has often hurt many a mind, but 
onr-tiiottght (if the word is admi:<stble) seldom if ever. 

Kead slowly, and whatever law book you nnd, after 
everk* proposition laid down, read the invisible •' why.** 

The "why" '- j ".erally f '-•^. on s<>lid reasons, and 

verv seldom . • — if ;• . made so by a long 

series of adjudications, followed to give to the law one of 
its elements of justice — certainty — and then it must be 
learnt. 

Lavmen believe the law is ofl«i oppressive and unjust, 
because they, in the very nature of things, can see but a 
few of the elemc: "- *" : go to m;Ake up the whole result. 

Let me next a.: -i to be slow in your pri»nouncing 

judgment. The temptation to young lawyers is great to 
pass hastUy on a pr a put, for fear their clients 

mar otherwise suspcv l v..v .. sagacity or learning. A hasty 
judgment may be correct, but it is not apt to be correct, 
and but very seldom knowingly correct, and a good lawyer 
shooki never guess at the law. Bad advice breeds more 
needless fit^tion than many other things, and the duty of 
a lawyer is to keep his client out of court, as it is the duty 
of a physician to keep his patient out of bed. if possible. 

You will soon dnd out that as aU other things, animate 
and inanimate, a professional man generally has two 
reputations, sometimes almost — never quite — alike — the 
repatation of truth and of appearance. The planet, 
Jnpiter, to the great mass of men, is but a small shining 
speck in the distant lirmament, utterly insignidcant as cv^m- 
pared in sine, lustre and importance with the moon, ^-et 



63 

tho Bcientific man knovvH itn infinite Hupcriority in these 
particularH over the latUjr, and knowH that the ]att<jr in but 
the KaU'Hiie of a Katoliite whih; the former has 8atcllit<^fi of 
its own. 

Coke, ManHfiehl, P^hlon, Marnhall, to those who have 
not the rneanH to take tiieir anglen and measure their men- 
tal Hize are hut Hrnall HpeekH in the higal firmament, hut 
thoHe who have thoHe means know them to he luminaries 
of the first order. I have known young men in our pro- 
feHhion able anf] amhitir>uH, too proud to seek a reputation 
for ability out.side of tfje eireie of those who were able to 
pass judj^ment upoa their merits, and I thought them 
wrong. I have seen others who were seeking a reputation 
mainly outside of that circle, and valued that reputation 
higher than their reputation in the profession, and I 
thought them still more wrong. The applause of those 
who know us best is grateful to our feelings, because it is 
well deserved, but the applause of all men should be still 
more grateful if equally well deserved. To make a suc- 
cessful practitioner a reputation among the bar alone does 
not suffice — an extensive sphere of usefulness can be 
gained only by being extensively and favorably known. 
Do not, therefore, seek to establish a reputation for profes- 
sional merit in the community regardless of what your 
standing may be at the bar, but acquire first some reputa- 
tion among your professional brethren, and then extend 
that reputation in the comnmnity, and narrow the gap 
between your reputation of truth and reputation of appear- 
ance as much as possible. 

From what I have f-aid, it follows that I deem it perni- 
cious to a young lawyer's success if he attempts to obtain 
too great a share of business in the beginning. His work 
to be done well, must be done deliberately; it must be 
done deliberately and well to accustom him early to do 
thoroughly whatever he does. Thus alone will he become 
favorably known among his professonal fellows — because 
no profession criticizes its members more severely than 



64 

ours — and if favorably known, will soon get enough to 
do. The market is never so overstocked but there is a 
sale for first-class articles, the city is never so overbuilt 
but there is room for the upper stories. 

And now, gentlemen, I desire to add to what I have said, 
a few words on a subject of paramount importance to you 
and of paramount importance to the community in which 
you live. We are all citizens of a democratic republic, 
and far be it from me to claim for any profession any 
pre-eminence or dignit}' over others, except so far as the 
very nature and form of our government establishes such 
pre-eminence. If I say what I do say now, it is not done 
to instill into you false feelings of your own importance, 
but to call your attention to your duties and responsibilities 
towards your fell«w citizens, which are incident to and 
correlative to the advantages of your position. Theoreti- 
cally here, the people are the sovereign, and the only 
sovereign ; but practically, the will of the people, as mani- 
fested in its laws, is the sovereign, and the only sovereign, 
and he who stands next to that sovereign exercises an 
influence by virtue of his position, which is foreign to 
those who stand more remote. 

As in ancient theocracies, the priest who dealt out the 
mysteries of the feigned deity and ])romulgated its laws; 
as in medieval monarchies, the steel-clad baron who, with 
his armed retainers, stood around the throne and by brute 
force ui)held a reign founded on that principle, so in 
modern democracies governed In' law, the lawyer, by virtue 
of his professional learning, stands next to that sovereign. 

It is a maxim of the law that all persons are supposed 
to know the law; it is one of those conclusive presump. 
tions which cannot bo gainsaid by evidence. Among 
people living under a democratic form of government it is 
a conclusion logically correct, because the law is but the 
emanation of the entire people's will. But even then, 
though logically correct, })ractically untrue. Being certain 
and fixed, its knowledge is accessible to all, but access to 



65 

the knowledge being difficult, it is practically accessible to 
but few. It is but natural therefore that those who have 
gained access to that knowledge should wield a peculiar 
power in the State, because they practically know the 
people's will, which the mass of the people as individuals 
practically know not; not less natural that while the 
politicians of the nation make the nation's speeches, a 
nation's lawyers frame a nation's laws. 

The justice and purity of the laws, and their just and 
impartial administration are the main safeguards of a 
people's liberty. "Wherein the law is unjust, as it may 
become in some things, because a progressive civilization 
necessarily changes somewhat the relations of man to man, 
and the individual to the aggregate, it will be for you 
to devise and advocate appropriate changes in the law, 
wherein it is defective, as defective it may become, because 
a heretofore unknown state of things may call for new 
remedies ; it will be for you to devise and advocate those 
remedies. 

But it will be for you to do more than that. To 
guard the justice and purity of the laws and their 
impartial administration, against the people itself. Not 
to oppose defiantly, yet to oppose, for the purpose of 
changing it, the people's will itself, when that will becomes 
dangerous to the people's welfare. Misunderstand me not- 
The people is theoretically always right. It is practically 
always right in its instincts, but often wrong in the 
measures it adopts. It knows not their danger, not know- 
ing their ultimate bearing and effect. 

Time may come, as times have been, when high-strung 
passions may obscure the calmer judgment of the masses, 
when to secure an immediate effect, the people become 
clamorous for measures ultimately dangerous to its own 
liberty. Then it becomes your duty to oppose your more 
unclouded judgment, as a stemming rock to the raging 
flood, at the risk of your own advancement, at the risk 
of your popularity, at the risk of all that man can risk. 

5 



66 

Fear not >)ut the time will come when you will stand 
vindicated — when your memory will stand vindicated if 
3'ou no longer live. There is an inherent sense of justice 
in the masses which ultimately will overcome all obstacles. 
Woe to the man who, in such a time, knowing the evil that 
he does, adds fuel to the raging flame in order that ho 
may warm himself. AVoe to the man who knowingly 
in such a time, helps to tear open the flood-gates of the 
waters in order to be borne himself on top of the rising 
flood. lie may gain temporary success, but if he lives 
lono- enoush he will outlive his own esteem. He will 
outlive the esteem of his fellow men, and go to his 
grave unblcst and unremembcred, or, if remembered, 
remembered only that coming generations may hurl at 
his memory their " anathema sit." 

But if the responsibilities of your profession are great, 
its rewards are proportionately rich. Industry and per- 
severance are sure to secure to each of you high social 
standing, material independence, and an extended sphere 
of usefulness. 

You go out hence to meet those responsibilities, and 
strive for those rewards. Take with you our best wishes 
for your success. Our semi-official connection with you 
terminates to-day. But on behalf of my associates, and 
on my own behalf, as far as I can do so with propriety, I 
desire to say, "whenever our advice can be of use to 
you in your future struggles, do not hesitate to make 
use of us as your own advisory board." 

In March, 1881, Frederick Ilecker died. He had been 
the leader of the revolutionary movement of 1848, in the 
Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany, was in many respects 
a remarkable man, and one wholly free from all shams. 
At the time of his burial in the woods, near his home in 
Summerfield, Illinois, representatives of all nations who 
participated in the liberal movement of 1848, had assembled, 
and had decorated his bier with wreaths, on behalf of 



67 

their respective nations. Roderick had then and there 
made a short address, in depositing a wreath on behalf of 
Hungary. When, some time afterwards, the compatriots 
of Hecker had erected a monument perpetuating his mem- 
ory in one of the public parks of the City of St. Louis, 
Roderick was selected to deliver an address in the English 
language as part of the ceremonies unveiling the statue. 
He spoke as follows, to the 15,000 people there assem- 
bled: 

Friends of Liberty — I thus salute you, assuming that 
no one attends here to-day who is not in some degree ani- 
mated by the spirit which was the guide of his life whose 
memory we have met to honor, of the life of Frederick 
Hecker, a tribune of the people. 

Born in a small town in the Duchy of Baden, seventy- 
one years ago, of parents in affluent circumstances, he was 
reared for the profession of the law. A diligent student, 
of rare eloquence and pleasing exterior, he soon rose to 
eminence in his profession, and was sure to earn the high- 
est reward it had to offer. But wealth and station had no 
allurements for him. At an early age he espoused the 
cause of a client, who, at that time in Europe, exacted all 
the time and energy of its advocates, and yet in return 
gave no other reward to its defenders than poverty, the 
prison or exile. In the case of the people against its op- 
pressors, he entered his appearance for the plaintiif . 

At the age of 31 he was elected a member of the housa 
of representatives and soon became a leader of the extreme 
left. He advanced rapidly in popular favor and became 
correspondingly obnoxious to the government. Within 
five years he was a leader of more than local reputation 
and in the opinion of the grand ducal government a fit 
subject to be tried for high treason. But the times were 
ominous. There was a distant rumbling sound which pre- 
saged the eruption of the French volcano. People began 
to rally in defense of their favorites, the threatened prose- 



68 

cution had failed to intimidate Hecker, and the trial never 
took place. 

Then came the days of 1848. Who does not remember 
them? It was the springtime of liberty. From the Seine 
to the Don and from the Po to the Elbe swept the hurri- 
cane. Thrones were leveled and sovereigns reluctantly 
bent their necks l)efore the popular will. The nations of 
Europe rose as with one accord in their demand for j^opu- 
lar representation, for liberty of conscience, freedom of 
speech and freedom of the press. Three names were upon 
the lips of the people everywhere, in speech and song; 
three men were within the people's hearts, the foremost 
champions of their rights: Garibaldi, Kossuth and 
Hecker. But the war of words soon became a war of 
arms. In the spiritual contest the leaders of the people 
maintained the field because they were right, but in the 
contest of arms the bayonets of the oppressors prevailed 
because they were mighty, "Within a year the tribunes of 
the people were wanderers in foreign lands, while at home 
the prison and the gibbet carried on the great work of 
restoration, and even the people blamed their absent 
leaders for their errors. 

Garibaldi, Hecker and Kossuth, they all may have had 
their faults. But the faults of great and true men are 
like the foothills around the base of lofty mountains, the 
nearer we stand to them the more they obscure our judg- 
ment of their true proportion by hiding the peaks that 
rise beyond. But when we.draw farther off, these foot hills 
slowly shrink, and finally sink into the plain, while the moun- 
tain giant first obscured, rises free and clear in majestic 
grandeur. Even so as we look at the lives and deeds of 
these men from a distance, do we realize how insignificant 
their faults were as compared with their great moral 
qualities. 

"Who has read and can ever forget the talc and lesson of 
that funeral service on the lonely island of the midland 
sea, where all nations honored themselves by honoring the 



69 

mighty dead? Who can forget that solemn pageant mov- 
ing through the Eternal city, while sorrowing Italy bent 
her head? 

What man who witnessed it will ever forget the scene 
around that humble grave in the silent woods of Illinois? 
The realist and the poet, the priest and the infidel, the 
conservative and the communist, the German and the 
Frenchman and natives of many lands, who had been 
drawn to this grave by the great load-stone of liberty, stood 
around it and decked it with flowers bedewed with tears. 
The acrimonious strife of interests and parties was for- 
gotten; forgotten the bitter national animosity. One 
thing alone was remembered, that before them and amono- 
them lay the silent form of one, whose love in its broad 
humanity had embraced them all, and whose spirit, though 
his lips were forever closed, was powerful enough to pro- 
claim and make them realize that the universal brotherhood 
of man is more than a poet's dream. 

In 1849, attempts at the political reformation of Ger- 
many having wholly failed, Hecker came to this country. 
Not to sit on the waters of Babylon and weep, but to 
continue the earnest work of his life. He fully realized 
the truth that in order to do much for the people with 
whom one lives, one must become part of that people. 
That the land of our fathers is entitled to our grateful 
memories, but the land of our children is entitled to our 
active work. When he came to America he became an 
American. He took an active and, at times, all-absorbino- 
interest in the social and political life of the nation of 
which he became an adopted son. From his rural home 
within a few miles of this city, where he reared his family, 
supporting them by tilling the soil, he emerged from time 
to time, and appeared in the political arena and the lecture 
room as an apostle of his faith. Earnest, erudite and elo- 
quent, and an implacable foe of all superstitions, shams 
and pretenses, he always carried his audience. And the 
people whose adopted son he was loved and honored him 



70 

in many vrays. One instance I shall recall as evidence of 
his thorough ideutiticatioii with the American people, 
shortly after he became a citizen : — 

A few weeks ago, in the heart of that great mountain 
wilderness, which separates the Atlantic from the Pacific 
States, a miner exhibited to me a relic which he had 
carefully preserved for many years. It was a small 
slip of paper, a copy of the first ballot cast in the 
struggle which finally liberated and enfranchised millions 
of the human race. I remembered it well, because, as 
chance would have it, it was a copy of the first ballot I 
myself had cast as an American citizen, in the State of 
Illinois 25 years ago. At the head of that paper, as presi- 
dential electors at large, I saw two names. One has since 
become a name of world-wide fame — both names of men 
dear to the American people — Abraham Lincoln and 
Frederick Hecker, 

Here, too, like in his old home, the war of words soon 
became a war of arms. Here, too, like in his old home, 
he was found in the ranks on the side of liberty, maintain- 
ing his faith with his sword, and sealing it at Chancellors- 
ville with his blood. But happier here than in his old 
home, the cause he advocated was equally triumphant in 
the legislative halls and on the battlefield, and he lived to 
see the day, when a reunited people, chastened by suffer- 
ing and purified b}' blood, grown stronger, wiser and better 
through misfortune, condemned with one accord the mon- 
strous wrong of human slavery. Throughout his life he 
remained a consistent and unfaltering Repul)lican. He 
recognized but one true government for the people, the 
government by the people. There came a time when even 
some of his old comrades faltered in their faith. The 
fame of the German arms rang through the civilized world. 
The genius of a German statesman had fashioned a united 
Germany out of many parts, cementing them together with 
iron and blood. The ra.ys of glory had dazzled the eyes of 



71 

many, and they sang liosannalis to the victorious emperor 
and to the iron duke. But the rays of glory never dimmed 
his penetrating sight. It was not glory which he wanted 
for the people of his native hills, but a free, just and 
economical government. When he visited his native land 
soon after the Franco-German war, his warning words were 
little heeded even by his former political adherents, but he 
and they have lived to see them verified. 

My friends, I am not here to affirm that Frederick 
Hecker was a great man in the popular sense of that term. 
He was more than that, he was a good, true and brave man 
in the highest sense of these terms, and loyal to his con- 
victions throughout a long and eventful life. He was 
prominent enough to make all these qualities felt. The 
lives and deeds of such men are not like the footprints on 
the sandy beach of a mighty ocean, that when the waves of 
time roll over it, they become] effaced, and future genera- 
tions see no mark. The lives and deeds of such men leave 
a lasting imprint, which we see and remember, and which 
aids us and our children to lead a braver and truer life. 

The tendency of the age in which we live is eminently 
material. In our infinite conceit we call it eminently prac- 
tical. The criterion of merit, and often the sole criterion, 
is success. In the race for wealth and power, the welfare of 
others, not seldom our own better instincts are disregarded 
and forgotten. We find no words to stigmatize successful 
crime. Thirty -four years ago a man stood up before the 
assembled representatives of the French nation and took a 
solemn oath that as its chief officer he would defend its 
liberties. Within three years he broke his oath and 
slaughtered those who dared to defend what he had sworn 
to defend. According to the laws of his land and time, 
and the ethics of all time, he became a perjured assassin. 
And yet, within a few years thereafter, a woman whom 
we all honor, because she was a good wife and a good 
mother, and because in the days of this country's great 
affliction her heart went out to the stricken widow, even 



72 

she took this man by the hand, and called him brother, 
and led him into her mansion on the Thames an 
honored guest. Such, some said, was the morality of 
sovereigns. Such, I say, is the morality of public 
life. Only wht'u his power was gone; only when he was 
vanquished and humiliated, and llecing from the wrath of 
a people whom he had plundered and betrayed was suing 
for mercy from a victorious foe, did the world find out 
that he was a bad man after all. 

We are apt to look upon him as a visionary dreamer who 
believes and proclaims that truth and justice and honor 
should be cherished and loved for their own sake. We 
are too apt to call him a dreamy enthusiast who believes 
and proclaims, that it is our duty to improve the condition 
of our fellow-men, regardless of the fact whether in so 
doing we improve our own. 

And it is for that reason that I call this day a day 
of triumi)h of our better self, because we have met 
here together and by our words and act proclaim, that 
because Frederick Ileckcr loved truth, justice and honor 
for their own sake; because, without reward, he strove 
to improve the condition of his fellow-men, we have 
roared this monument to his memory, so tiiat even the 
unlettered of future generations may remember him as 
we remember him to-day. 

Louis Kossuth, ex-Governor of Hungary , the most devoted 
patriot, and the most brilliant orator of modern times, 
died in Italy in the year 1894. His remains were brought 
to Hungary for interment, by a people who idolized 
his name and mcmorv. The funeral cortege escorting 
the remains to the cemetery on the Rakos, the ancient 
assembly ground of Hungarian freemen, was probably 
one of the most imposing the world had ever seen. 
Memorial services were held in all parts of the globe 
where Hungarians resided, and among other places in 
the City of St. Louis, being attended in the latter place by 



73 

the Mayor of the City, and all the resident Judges of 
the State and Federal Courts. Roderick was selected 
to deliver the memorial address and spoke as follows : — 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : 

It is ordained by the eternal fitness of things, that not 
from palaces of the great, but from the abodes of the hum- 
ble, should emanate the great tribunes of the people. Those 
who lie closest to the heart of the great mother are fittest 
to give expression to the yearnings of that heart. The 
history of mankind has verified this fact from the beginning 
of the Christian era to the present day. The life and deeds 
of the phenomenal man whose memory we meet to honor, 
and which form a prominent part of the history of this 
century, has also verified it. Born of humble parents at 
the beginning of the century, and departing at its close, he 
devoted three-fourths of that period to the welfare of his 
people. For half a century his name was identified with 
its history, and two continents rang with its fame. He 
failed to found a worldly empire, but he built an empire of 
love in the hearts of his people, and sat upon its throne 
without a rival, and when he died, of all his nation's sons, 
he left the sweetest memory behind him. 

The imagination of mankind is but like the imagination 
of a child. It fastens itself to prominent objects and loses 
sight of the surroundings which give them prominence. 
Mountains, cities and men are to us representatives of 
countries and their history. Mont Blanc stands for the 
Swiss Alps. Rome, Sparta and Athens, are still to many of 
us the Roman Empire and Greek Confederation. We know 
the history of Alexander but not of Macedon. Luther and 
Gustavus Adolphus stand for the history of reformation. 
And yet how utterly futile to comprehend and measure a 
man unless we know the conditions which surround him. 
A man of genius may sometimes mould conditions and 
adapt them to his purposes, but to create conditions is be- 



74 

pond the reach of even genius. To bring these conditions 
before 3*011 shall be my first task. 

More than a thousand years ago, a large horde of barba- 
rians coming from Eastern Asia, poured across the Carpa- 
thian mountains and seized the plains of Southeastern 
Europe. Like a wedge driven into a yielding mass they 
pressed the then inhabitants of the country, who were of 
Sarmatic, Greek, Roman and Dacien origin, upon the 
rugged slopes of the surrounding hills, while they them- 
selves occupied the fertile plain. The invaders and con- 
querors were the Mag^^ars, and they and the conquered, 
nearly one thousand years ago, founded a kingdom, then 
and ever since known as the Kingdom of Hungary. The 
kingdom was elective and so remained for seven hundred 
years. The race was hardy, warlike and intelligent. The 
rest of Europe in many parts changed its dominant races 
for centuries thereafter, but the foot of the Magyar re- 
mained where he planted it more than one thousand years 
ago, and his dominion was never disturbed. The people 
shortly after their advent became Christians. Their first 
king was not only a Christian but is a canonized saint of 
the church, and hence we must assume was both a wise 
and good man. In the middle ages the heroism and Chris- 
tian fortitude of these people stood as a bulwark between 
eastern fanaticism and European civilization, and if Europe 
is what it is to-day it is due to this people, of whom count- 
less numbers fell as martyrs of their faith and patriotism 
before the sword of the Ottoman. 

The government of this people was from its earliest date 
a government by the people; although the people at that 
date meant only those who were of free or noble birth. 
The people decided on all measures of national importance, 
first in convocations of the freemen, and afterwards when 
that })ccamc impracticable owing to their number, ])v par- 
liamentary delegates. They elected their kings and 
crowned them, and a king not thus elected, and crowned 



75 

with the crown of St. Stephen, was never recognized as a 
legitimate king. 

The Hungarians were a freedom-loving people and jeal- 
ous of their rights. They were fully alive to the sentiment 
that " resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." It is a 
strange coincidence that the most western and the most 
eastern nation of Europe should be called upon almost 
simultaneously to give practical meaning to this sentiment. 
In 1215 the nobles of England assembled at Runnymead, 
and wrung from a reluctant tyrant the great charter of the 
nation. In 1220 the Hungarian nobles assembled, and 
wrung from another tyrant the great charter of that nation, 
known as the golden bull, which guaranteed to them 
among other things the right of armed resistance to tyran- 
nical measures of the king. That charter remained in- 
violate until 1687 when Leopold of Austria, then elective 
King of Hungary and sworn to obey the provisions of this 
charter, forced the nation, to repeal this provision, and 
forced its congress to declare that the throne was hereditary 
in the house of Austria. But so soon are injuries forgiven 
by a magnanimous nation, that notwithstanding this exac- 
tion of the perjured tyrant, the Hungarians saved not only 
the throne of Hungary but that of the Austrian Empire to 
his grandchild, Maria Theresa, when abandoned by all the 
world she fled among them for support. It was then that 
the historic cry of " moriamur pro rege nostro " resounded, 
which within two centuries owing to the second great per- 
fidy of the house of Austria was to be turned into another 
" moriamur. ^^ 

In the beginning of this century a new light fell upon 
the Hungarian nation, and the national spirit received a 
new impetus. The literary and artistic taste of the people 
which lay dormant for centuries, revived. Poets, painters 
and sculptors arose, the fame of some of whom spread far 
beyond the narrow confines of the land. New industries 
sprang up in every direction. 

It was among these surroundings that Kossuth was born 



76 

in 1802. He was born on historic ground, where the vine 
grew more hixuriant bcctiuse the soil was fertilized by the 
blood of patriots. Monok, the place of his birth, is but a 
few miles from the ancestral seat of the Rakocy's, whose 
name is indelibly connected with the struggles for Hun- 
garian independence and religious freedom. Many of his 
ancestors had unquestionably followed the standard of these 
patriot heroes, and that of Tokoly, as it is said that no 
less than fifteen of his race had suffered martyrdom upon 
the scaffold for their convictions. He sprung from a race 
which though humble, had acquired a prescriptive right of 
breeding patriots and martyrs. His parents though noble 
were poor, a combination quite frequent in that part of 
Hungary. The expenses of his collegiate education were 
defrayed by a wealthy patron. He studied for the bar, 
entered it, and had acquired a high standing in his profes- 
sion when at the age of thirty he was first called upon to 
defend an oppressed client against a powerful antagonist — 
the people against their sovereign. 

I shall not weary you with details of the history of his 
rapid rise, his journalistic efforts, his two years' imprison- 
ment for violation of the press laws. All persecution and 
suffering made him but stronger, more determined, and 
dearer to the people, so that he was returned to parliament 
in 1848 by an overwhelming vote. When that memorable 
parliament assembled, he stood unquestionably foremost 
among its members, and in the hearts of his countrymen. 
The constitution of that year was mainly his work, and 
many of its features could never have been carried even 
throHfjh parliament without his zeal and eloquence. I say 
even through parliament because you must remember these 
facts : It was a parliament of nobles, elected by nobles, and 
the constitution ordained that all privileges of the nobility 
should cease, and suffrage should be next to universal. It 
was a parliament of laud owners, whose lands were tilled 
by serf labor ; and the constitution ordained that all labor 
should be compensated, and serf labor should forever cease. 



77 

It was a parliament composed in the main of Catholics, and 
the constitution ordained religious liberty, freedom of con- 
science and freedom of the press, and general education of 
all classes at public expense. Public expense meant the 
expense of those who framed the constitution, because they 
were the main owners of the wealth of the land. 

In April, 1848, this constitution received the fo^al sanc- 
tion, and the joy of the nation was unbounded. The con- 
stitution provided for a Hungarian Cabinet responsible to 
parliament, and responsible in the fullest sense of the XVdtd, 
because any of its members found guilty of treason, bribery 
or oppression, were placed by its very terms beyond execu- 
tive clemency. It seemed to have provided for all wants 
of the newborn nation save one, which Want no constitu- 
tion of a monarchy ^ however carefully drawn, has yet last- 
ingly secured — good faith on part of the king. 

In the Cabinet, which was at once formed, Kossuth was 
placed in the most responsible position — that of secretary 
of an empty treasury. On accounting with the imperial 
eabinet it was found that the money which by rights should 
have fallen to Hungary was all spent, save less than $200,- 
000. Knowing that a young nation cannot afford to begin 
housekeeping with unsecured money, he made a fervent 
appeal to the people for gold and silver treasure. There 
was an enthusiastic response. Within a few weeks the gold 
and silver plate of the nation filled the coffers of the gov- 
ernment to an extent authorizing the issue of well^-secured 
paper money in excess of six millions of dollars. 

There was a Hungarian army nominally under the con- 
trol of the newly created Secretary of War, but it had 
always been the policy of the Austrian government to keep 
that part of the army recruited in one of its provinces, sta- 
tioned in another. The so-called Hungarian army was in 
Austrian Italy, Poland, Bohemia and Austria proper, and 
everywhere else except in Hungary, and the sovereign took 
good care that the soldiers of this army should never re- 
turn, except such as fought their way back through oppos- 



78 

ing forces a few months later, in order to fight and die with 
tht'ir own people, because the intrigues for the annullment 
of the new constitution, on the part of the advisers of the 
sovereign, began contemporaneously with its grant. 

Among the many touching incidents connected with this 
episode I shall mention only one. When it became immi- 
nent that the nation would have to defend by arms its con- 
stitution against the kinar, the committee of national defense 
issued a call to Hunirarian troops stationed abroad to return 
to their country. This call reached a regiment of Hussars 
stationed in far-off Poland. Its adjutant, a dear kinsman 
of mine, who was a favorite with its officers and men, rode 
to the front of the assembled regiment, and read the call 
aloud. The commander ordered the troops to shoot him 
down, but they refused. One hundred and fifty enlisted 
men left the ranks, and begged my young friend to take 
them home. Without means or provisions they started for 
their country hundreds of miles away. They had to fight 
their way through opposing forces, because the main roads 
were blockaded by hostile troops, who had orders to hunt 
them down like wolves. After untold hardships they 
reached the border, but of the one hundred and fifty who 
started but ten remained. As chance would have it they 
crossed the boundary near the spot where Arpad's war- 
riors had crossed one thousand years before, and when 
their young leader told them that they at last stood upon 
Hungarian ground, they all dismounted and kissed the soil 
at their feet. And what became of the young hero? 
you will ask. He fought bravely through the war, but had 
the misfortune to survive it, and to become a captive. He 
was tried and sentenced to be shot, but by mercy of his 
sovereign lord, the king, was pardoned to imprisonment 
for life. 

The only original military forces under the nominal con- 
trol of the Hungarian government were the so-called boun- 
dary regiments of Croatia and Slavonia, whose jealousy and 
disaffection with the Hungarian government, was fanned 



79 

into open rebellion against it by emissaries of the imperial 
cabinet. This army within a few months became an army 
of enemies in the very heart of the land. 

In order to judge the man of whom I speak you must 
know the conditions which surrounded him. I hold in my 
hand one of the bills issued by the Hungarian Treasury 
and secured by the bullion raised by his eloquent aj)peal. 
Its denomination is printed on it in five languages, repre- 
senting the five principal races inhabiting Hungary. Of 
these races, outside of the Magyar, the German alone was 
faithful. With that characteristic fidelity to his adopted 
country, and that love of political liberty which marks the 
German everywhere, he at once arrayed himself on the side 
of the new government. The other three races, represent- 
ing one-half of the entire population, took sides against 
it. The nation had no money, no arms, no army. 
Hostile organized forces were on its southern border. 
It was cut off from all communication with friendly neigh- 
bors. Greatly through the energy and eloquence of 
him of whom I speak, as Secretary of the Treasury, as 
Chairman of the Committee of National Defense, and 
finally as Governor, within one year all this was changed. 
The treasury was replenished, an army was created and 
equipped, domestic insurrection was suppressed, the united 
Austrian and Russian forces were driven from Transjdvania. 
The invading Austrian army was scourged back to the 
very walls of the Austrian capital, and the emperor was 
driven to the humiliating step of invoking the aid of the 
great autocrat of the North, to aid him in subduing a small 
fragment of his own subjects. But all this is history with 
which you are as familiar as myself. Let me give you 
something which history cannot give you — my first and 
last physical view of Kossuth and his surroundings. Two 
pictures which have made an indelible impression on my 
imagination so that I can see them both to-day. 

It was in the summer of 1848 when, with a boy friend, 
I entered the gallery of the Hungarian Parliament. The 



80 

honeymoon of the Revolution was over and troubles had com- 
menced. The Banus (tf Croatia was on his hostile march 
towards the capital. Below us was a sea of interesting 
faces representing the political intelligence of the nation. 
The massive head of Dedk, who afterwards became the great 
pacificator, that of the fiery Boethy, of the eloquent Be- 
zertdy and Klausal. The curly head of Petofy, sweetest 
of oriental poets. The debate was heated and the excite- 
ment intense. A man in the uniform of a private of artil- 
lery' left the Government bench and mounted the tribune. 
All men, high or low, were soldiers in those days. I knew 
him at once, though I had never seen him before. He 
began in a low, melodious voice, with cheeks pale and eyes 
dim, having recently risen from a sick bed, but as he 
warmed with his subject, his eyes became radiant, his face 
animated, and his voice rang out like a clarion note, filling 
the most remote recesses of the immense hall and carrying 
conviction to everj' heart. Never till then had I fully real- 
ized the power of the human voice, and its magnetic force, 
when wielded by genius, and had he called upon me to fol- 
low him into the very jaws of death I would not have 
hesitiited. 

It was one year later, in the summer of 1849, when last 
I saw him. The closing days of the great tragedy were 
close at hand. The combined Austrian and Russian armies 
were pressing our forces southward. The refrain of the 
nation's war hymn called passionately on God for aid, 
because all human aid seemed to fail. It ran thus : — 

*' And, O God, thou great God of the Magyar race, 
To thy people, thy pood people, thy true people, show thy grace; 
Aid thy children, put thy power in their hands, 
And thy world-destroying ire on the keen edge of their brands." 

It was a moonlight night, on one of the great public 
squares, in a town of Southeastern Hungary. The square 
was filled with men, many of whom wore the red cross fas- 
tetfed to their breast, because Kossuth was preaching the 



81 

'Crusade. He stood upon a balcony on one side of the square, 
and his voice again rang out like a clarion note, filling every 
recess of the immense square and finding its way to every 
heart ; it had lost none of its force and none of its alluring 
power. And when he ceased there was a shout which 
made the welkin ring. It also was a 7noriamui\ but not 
pro rege nostro. It was the inorituri te salutamus of 
Freedom's gladiators addressed to their country. 

And next day there was the gathering of men, and 
fluttering of standards, and the shrill bugle note; but alas, 
it w^as but 

Blow, bugle, blow, send the wild echoes flying, 
Blow, bugle ; answer, echoes dying, dying, dying. 

That he should have exercised the great influence which 
he did over the hearts and will of his own countrymen is 
easily understood. It is love which breeds love, and his 
love for his people was all-absorbing. Besides, he spoke 
the language of the Orient to Orientals, and spoke it as it 
never had been, and probably never will be spoken till time 
and man shall be no more. But he earned that magnetic 
power with him wherever he went. There are many within 
the sound of my voice who were witnesses of his triumphal 
march through America- Of the unbounded enthusiasm that 
greeted and followed him here, although he spoke a language 
he had practically just acquired, and spoke it to a Western 
people. Even the peaceful Quaker poet Whittier, whom 
we all loved while he lived, and whose memory we still 
revere, was transported by his enthusiasm for this man, 
who was anything but a man of peace. Many of you know 
his magnificent apostrophe addressed to Kossuth on his 
;arrival in America. 

Type of two mighty continents, combining 
The strength of Europe with the warmth and glow 

Of Asian song and prophecy, the shining 
Of Orient splendorj over northern snow. 
Who shall receive him? 



82 

Oh, for the tongue of him who lies at rest 

In Qulncy's shade of patrimonial trees; 
Last of the Puritan tribunes and the best 

To lend a voice to freedom's sympathies, 
And hail the coming of the noblest ^uest 
The Old World's wrong has given the New World of the West. 

Yet we all know what bitter disappointment the visit had 
in store for Kossuth, notwithstanding his enthusiastic 
reception by the American people. The President, the 
Cabinet, Congress and the Governors of States, and the 
municipahties of the hirger cities, all vied with each other 
to show him such honor as never was shown by them to 
any man, not even to Lafayette. But it was not honor he 
came to seek, but the aid of the American Government 
for the restoration of the independence of his country. 
He came as Kossuth, the Governor of Iluugary, and was 
received as Kossuth, the Hungarian jiatriot and exile. 
We all know that any other reception was impossible, and 
he must have realized it himself shortly after his arrival, 
but his disappointment was nevertheless severe. The 
United States of America had watched the struggle of the 
Hungarians for liberty with the keenest interest. What- 
ever material aid its citizens could give during the contin- 
uance of the struggle was freely given. Even when the 
struggle was over, Capt. Ingraham had cleared his ship 
for battle in the harbor of Smyrna, when the Austrians 
temporarily denied his peremptory demand for the surren- 
der of Martin Kosta. But the Austrian Government had 
carefully avoided all cause for war with America, and a 
causeless war was out of the question. The warning 
words of the nation's first and greatest citizen were still 
too fresh in its memory : — 

♦•A passionate attachment of one nation to another 
produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite 
nation facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common 
interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and 



83 

infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the 
former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the 
latter, without adequate inducement and justification." 

Kossuth returned to England with his last hope dispelled, 
if hope it ever was, and spent the remainder of his days 
there, and afterwards in Italy, as an exile from his coun- 
try, but not, as some seem to think, a voluntary exile. 

We are apt, when men fail in some great undertaking, to 
ascribe the failure rather to them, than to conditions which 
made success impossible. We are apt, when reviewing the 
lives of great men, to pick out an error here and there, and 
say it should have been avoided. We forget that in most 
cases these seeming errors are but the outcome of sublimer 
virtues. Why, say some, did Kossuth advocate Hungarian 
aid to Austria in its war with Charles Albert, when it was 
well known that the House of Savoy was the most liberal 
dynasty in Europe? Why, say some, did he not permit 
the Hungarian army to invade Austria in 1848, while the 
people of Vienna stiU held out against the Imperial troops ? 
Had he permitted it, the besieging army would have been 
between two fires, and one great blow would have annihi- 
lated the Austrian Empire and established Hungarian 
independence. The answer is simple. He had sworn to 
obey the constitution, and his oath was a living and sacred 
thing, because it was the oath of a citizen. It bound him 
to aid his sovereign against his foreign enemies. It bound 
him not to raise his hand against his anointed king, until 
the perfidy of the latter was established beyond all perad- 
venture. Thus from the highest virtue of the people 
springs its greatest weakness. What oath ever bound the 
sovereign when it was his intention to disregard it? What 
interest can ever outweigh the sacredness of the patriot's 
oath? 

Some say that Kossuth was a dreamer, meaning thereby 
to say, that he was a man unfit for the practical aims of 
life. Go and tell that to the Hungarian Jew, who was but 
a pariah before 1848, and who now sits in the councils of 



84 

the nation side by side with the proudest of the land, and 
whose child trudges to the public schools side by side with 
his catholic l)rother. Tell him Kossuth was a dreamer, 
and hear what he will say. Tell it to the Hungarian peas- 
ant, who was next to a serf in 1848, and now tills the soil 
which he owns himself, and listen to his answer. "Was 
the replenishing of an empty treasury a dream? Was the 
creation of that magnificent army, which swept the invad- 
ing forces of the faithless king from the land, nought but 
an empty dream? Blessed be he who can dream dreams 
which bear such everlasting fruit. 

Is not our present civilization but an outcome of one of 
these dreams? W:u5 the creed of universal love and broth- 
erhood, when it was first born in the midst of the brutal 
Roman Empire, ought but the wildest dream? And yet 
one died for it upon the cross, and thousands followed him, 
and hundreds of thousands died for it in the amphitheater 
and at the stake, until the necessities of Constantine made 
the dream a reality. 

Some say Kossuth was an idealist. Is it perchance be- 
cause he maintained that a people have a right to defend 
by arms its chartered liberties? Is it because he thought 
that an oath is equally sacred, whether sworn by a king or 
the humblest in the land? If to hold such views be error, 
let us erase from the revering mind of our children the 
memory of Washington, and the Adamses, and that of all 
our great patriots, and let us hurl the obelisk of Bunker 
Hill into the sea. 

Some say he ought to have returned when the Emperor 
of Austria granted general amnesty, and that he ought to 
have helped to build up the new fortunes of his country 
by his personal presence and influence. Do those who say 
so know that his return was conditioned on repentance, 
and upon taking a new oath of fealty to the House of 
Haps))urg? He knew that it was Sadowa which gave birth 
to the new Hungarian constitution. "What guarantees had 
he that another Sadowa, with victors reversed, would not 



85 

wipe it out again? He knew by bitter experience that 
the contract of fealty between sovereign and subject was 
practically unilateral. What signifies distance in this age 
of steam and electricity? He could aid his people better 
from Turin, where he was bound by no fetters, and he 
felt that his allegiance was due to his people, and not to 
its sovereign. 

Those of us who have watched his course during his 
long exile know that his devotion to his people never 
flagged. To every question at home, social or political, 
which was of graver importance, he gave attention until 
the day of his death . Many were his touching appeals to 
his party in the late parliaments, to disregard all party 
interests, if by doing so they could promote the general 
welfare. My country above my party was not an empty 
phrase with him. He asked for nothing in return. The 
bounties which a nation's liberality from time to time 
offered to him, he modestly declined. He preferred to earn 
his own living. At the age of 90 and more, he was still a 
toiler, earning his daily bread. His advice was, let the 
nation's surplus wealth be expended in glorifying its dead 
martyrs, and not in support of those who could earn 
enough to supply their own modest wants. 

Some, without knowing better, speak of the ungrate- 
fulness of the nation to him. The nation gave him all 
he asked. On the bloody meadow of Arad, where the 
thirteen revolutionary generals suffered, now stands a 
magnificent monument to their memory, proclaiming more 
forcibly than any written charter can, the subject's right 
of armed resistance to tyrannical measures of the king. 
On the main square of Buda, and close to the royal j^alace, 
stands a monument equally magnificent, erected to the 
memory of the warriors of the nation, who died in wrest- 
ing that stronghold from the soldiers of the king. On 
the opposite shore of the Danube and facing the palace of 
Hungarian kings, stands Huszar's magnificent statue of 



86 

Petofi, sweetest of Oriental poets, and grandest of the 
bards of liberty. 

All these are not menaces to royal authority, but solemn 
witnesses in stone and bronze, proclaiming to the world 
that in that great struggle between the people and their 
king, tlie people and not the king were in the right. The 
peace between the two has long since been re-established, 
on the only terms on which it could be done. The mon- 
arch himself had crowned the bier of Deak, once a great 
rebel, and then the great pacificator, and wept while 
doing so, a sincere penitent. Let no one say after this 
the nation was ungrateful to Kossuth. In doing all this, 
it gave him all he asked. 

Forty-six years ago this very month the new constitu- 
tion of Hungary received the royal sanction, mainly through 
the efforts of the people's eloquent champion, and every 
hill and vale resounded with the joyful shout of happy 
men, and with praises of his name. To-day a solemn 
silence has fallen upon the land, and its millions are in 
tears. Slowly, from a far-off country, has come a solemn 
cortege, bearing in its midst the nation's most beloved son, 
an exile for nearly half a century. As the silent pro- 
cession wound along, the trees, fanned by the March wind, 
bowed their branches in silent reverence. The delicate 
fibres of the orphan maid's hair, which once furnished the 
plumes of the Hungarian csikos cavalry, bent to the 
ground. The violets opened their large dark eyes to look 
upon the long-missed face, which was once so warm and 
eloquent, and is now so cold and still. Past the high 
hill where sat in splendor Hungary's ancient kings ; past 
the statues of his old companions, Deak and Petofi; past 
the historic square where Arany stands in bronze, and 
broods over Hungary's departed glory; past all these they 
bore him to the plain, which once was the great meeting 
place of Hungary's freemen, and there sadly consigned 
his dust to dust, that he at last may rest among the people 
whom he did love so well. 



87 

In May, 1896, Eoderick returned to his native land after 
a continued absence of almost 45 years. It was the year 
of the millennium of the conquest of the country by the 
Hungarians, and the event was celebrated with great pomp, 
and a national exhibit, which as far as its historic feature, 
covering a period of one thousand years was concerned, 
was without parallel. His sojourn in his native land for 
several months was highly gratifying to him. Young and 
old and people of all stations vied with each other to do 
him honor. The Hungarian residents of the United States 
of America had caused three elaborate silver wreaths to be 
prepared, and sent them across the Atlantic in charge of a 
committee, with instructions to decorate with them the 
monuments or resting-places of the three most distin- 
guished Hungarian patriots of modern times. One was to 
be deposited on the grave of Louis Kossuth, one in the 
mausoleum of Francis Deak, and one at the foot of the 
magnificent statue of Count Stephen Sechenyi, which stands 
on the Danube in front of the palace of the Academy of 
Science, of which he was the founder. The committee in 
charge of the decoration kindly extended to Eoderick the 
option at which of these three places he desired to deliver 
the dedicatory oration. He chose the last named place, 
where, standing between the illustrious son of an illustrious 
sire and his grandchild, a young lady of exquisite beauty 
and loveliness, he spoke as follows : — 

Mr. President and Gentlemen : 

I deem it eminently fit that some of the words which 
accompany the acts of piety which we are performing to- 
day, should be uttered in the language of our adopted 
country. I deem it no less fit that they should be uttered 
at the base of this statue, because the aims, aspirations 
and work of Stephen Szechenyi, are better understood, 
and are more fully appreciated by intelligent Americans, 
than those of his great cotemporaries, whose memory we 
have sought to honor to-day. 



88 

Less than a century ago on the shores of the great rivers 
which traverse the central part of the North American con- 
tinent, and on the western shores of its great inhmd seas, 
still rang the war-whoop of the Indian, and millions of 
wild buffaloes roamed over the desert plain. To-day these 
shores arc dotted by thriving cities, which number their 
inhabitants by the hundred thousand, and vast colleges of 
learning rise, and lofty cathedrals hft their spires towards 
heaven. Countless arteries of iron run from place to place, 
diffusing the products of a continent, and millions of busy 
hands provide for the comfort and happiness of other 
millions. What caused this transformation? The well 
directed energies of an industrious and intelligent people, 
guided by the genius of liijerty. 

Less than a century ago this glorious land of Hungary 
was also measurably a desert and a waste. The energy of 
its people was buried under the dust of centuries. They 
were feeding their imagination on a glorious past, but 
were too indolent to work for a glorious future. It required 
the sound of a mighty clarion to awake them, and a man 
of great judgment and of indomitable courage to sound 
this clarion, and such a man was found in Stephen 
Szechenyi. If Hungary is to-day what it is; if it takes its 
fitting rank among the foremost nations of Europe in 
learning, literature and art, in industry and in commerce, 
in its highways by land and water, it is due more to 
Stei)hen S/i'cheuyi than to any other of its citizens. To 
create conditions is beyond the power of any man, but he 
utilized existing conditions with a clear judgment, endless 
labor, and an all-absorbing devotion to his people. Like 
a new Moses he led them into the promised land of a 
higher civilization. 

This magnificeut palace of learning before which we stand, 
designed to per|)ctuate the wealth of Hungarian literature, 
is mainly his work. The rapid communication carried on 
to-day by thousands of boats on this beautiful river, on 
which we gaze, is to a great extent his creation. He pro- 
claimed the fact that powder could be used for nobler 



89 

ends than to kill our fellow men, and through the iron 
gate of the Danube his energy and genius planned a high- 
way, fittingly marked by his name in conjunction with 
that of one of the greatest and best of Eomans, the 
emperor Trajan. In that unfortunate struggle between the 
Hungarian people and its sovereign, which is ended now 
we trust never to rise again, he stood faithfully and 
courageously by his people to the last. A grateful nation 
has erected to his memory this magnificent statue, but he 
has erected for himself a monument greater by far in the 
hearts of his countrymen, whose love and veneration for 
him will endure forever. 

And it is because he has done all this, that now on 
behalf of his compatriots, whom the fates have cast into a 
land far beyond the sea, and who there, animated by his 
illustrious example, try to do their duty to their adopted 
country, I place this humble token of their reverence 
upon this monument. 

An episode connected with this visit to his native land 
is worthy of note. In a modest villa on the shore of the 
Danube, at the foot of the ruins of the ancient royal burg 
of Vissegrad, lived then in retirement Arthur Gorgei, 
whilom the commander in chief of the Hungarian Army 
of 1848, and the dictator of Hungary after Kossuth's 
retirement. The voice of the masses had proclaimed him 
a traitor, because he had surrendered the forces under his 
command, to Prince Paskievits, the Russian commander, 
at a time when further resistance was hopeless. He was 
denounced as a traitor to his country, solely because the 
Austrian house, with the most refined cruelty, had spared 
his life, while his less important fellow generals were 
gibetted and shot. Vissegrad is a spot of surpassing beauty 
and historic interest. It was the residence of Slavonian 
kings, ages before the invasion of the country by the 
Hungarians. It was here that the unfortunate king Sol- 
omon of the house of Arpad was imprisoned by his brother ; 
where the kings of the house of Anjou, Robert Charles 



90 

and Loui-s the Gretit, maintained their loyal household, 
and where Mathias Corvinus, the idol of the people, in the 
then most resplendent Court of Europe had wasted his 
fortune. 

Roderick ctilled upon the old general and spent a day 
with him. Together they ascended the high mountain 
crowned by the ancient ruin, the octogenarian stopping' 
now and then to point out some striking feature in the 
landscape, or some spot of historic interest. From the 
summit the eye roamed over a seemingly endless stretch of 
hills and valleys, to the very foot of the Matra mountains, 
where the general fortv-eight vears a^o had won his first 
decisive battles over the Austrians. This incident led 
Roderick to write the following verses, which upon their 
next meeting he presented to the General, who was very 
grateful for the compliment : — 

Bei den Trummem vom alten Kouigsschloss 
Steht der Feldherr iu Traume verloren. — 
£r sieht sich wieder auf scbnaubendea Ross 
An der Spitze des Ueeres fur Monde lang 
Bis die Freilicit des Landes zu Grabe sank; 
Die Freiheit jetzt wiedergeboren. 

Und Hatvan, und Bicsice, und Izsaszeg, 
Machen um ilin die blutige Ruude. 
Husarcn fogcn die Feiude weg, 
Von den Hiigcln licrab tont der Wiederhall 
Von Kanonendonner und Ilonierschall, 
Und heisser breunt ilim die Wuude. 

Er sleht sich im Gelste wieder steh'n 
Vor Buda's gcwappneten Tliore, 
Von den Zinncn des Feindes Falinen weh'n, 
Bei'in Morgengrauen die Honv<;ds zieli'n, 
Sie stiirmen die Bresclie, die Feinde flieh'n, 
Hocb flattert die Tricolore. 



Bei den Triiraraem vom alten Kouigsschloss, 

Liegt wohl einst der Feldherr begraben, 

Hoch liber ilira thiirmt sich der Berg-Koloss, 

Und das Volk das iliu langc geschinliht und verkannt, 

Brlugt Kriiiizc zura felsigen Grabcsrand 

Und audcrc Liebesgaben. 



91 



HIS ACTIVITY IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 

Eoderick became a naturalized citizen in 1856, and from 
that time on as a matter of duty took a continued active 
interest in public affairs. He felt that in a nation gov- 
erned by measures determined by universal suffrage, it was 
the duty of every citizen to familiarize himself with public 
questions, so as to enable him to cast his vote intelligently, 
and that it was also his duty to devote part of his time to 
affairs of the commonwealth. Since he was opposed to 
the extension of slavery into the territories, and was in 
favor of the emancipation of all slaves even in the States, 
and since these were the vital questions on which parties then 
divided he naturally allied himself with the Republican party, 
which was formed by a coalition of the free soil Whigs and 
Democrats. Party with him, however, was not an empty 
name to conjure with, but a political association, advocat- 
ing correct public measures. Hence while he continued to 
be nominally a member of the Republican party, even after 
it became committed to a high protective tariff, and to colo- 
nial expansion, he ceased to be what is known as a regular, 
and became an independent Republican. 

He was always a firm advocate of the one term principle, 
as applied to the office of President of the United States. 
He advocated, and secured the adoption of a declaratory 
resolution to that effect, in, and by the Republican State 
Convention of Missouri in 1864, and the delegation from 
that State to the Republican National Convention of that year 
was the only one which cast a protest vote in the convention 
against the renomination of the then President. 

He played quite a prominent part in local and State 
politics after he became a citizen of Missouri, and known 
to its people. He was offered a Supreme Judgeship of 
that State, by appointment, when 33 years of age, but 
declined it because he knew that it was offered in expecta- 
tion that he would enforce the provision of the new constitu- 



92 

tion of the State, before the question, whether it had been 
properly adopted was legally tested. "When ho was 35 
years old the caucus nomination of the minority party in 
the State for U. S. Senator was offered to him, but he 
declined it, because while it was then his main ambition to 
become a member of theU. S. Senate, he cured nothing: for 
the mere advertisement conferred by a minority nomination. 

But while he was a Eepublican, he always subordinated 
the success of that party to the welfare of the common- 
wealth. His sense of justice re])elled against the pro- 
scriptive measures contained in the Constitution of Mis- 
souri of 1865, by which one-half of the voters of the State 
were disfranchised, simply because of their sympathy with 
the Southern States in their ill-advised efforts to destroy 
the Union. He vigorously opposed the adoption of that 
measure, and it was due in great part to his efforts that 
in the city of St. Louis, which had then a normal 
Republican majority of 5,000, the majority against the 
adoption of that constitution was over 7,000, making a 
difference of 12,000 in the vote. He always was of 
the opinion that that measure never was honestly adopted 
in the State, but that its adoption as declared, was due 
to the manipulation of certain unscrupulous canvassing 
officers. 

He did not believe that those engaged in the attempt to 
destroy the Union should be rewarded, nor did he on the 
other hand believe that they should be punished to the 
extent of beiug excluded from all participation in the 
government. The correct policy in his opinion was for all 
parties to forget the war as soon as possible, and to devote 
their common energies to heal the wounds caused by the 
unfortunate conflict. It is for that reason, among others, 
that he declined to join any organization of ex-soldiers of 
the Union Army, which were designed to accentuate the 
memories of the war. 

The following verses writteu by him for the occasion, 
and read as part of the memorial ceremonies, when the 



93 

National Cemetery for Union soldiers at Jefferson Barracks , 
near St. Louis, Misssouri, was dedicated, will best illustrate 
his views on the subject: — 

When Freedom once from East to West 

Sent forth her battle cry, 

Five hundred thousand warriors rose 

To conquer or to die. 

Five hundred thousand warriors armed^ 

And marched to martial strains. 

But, Ah, full many thousand went 

Who never came again. 

On Southern plains, on Southern hills, 

Canebrake, and mountain side; 

They fought, that Freedom still might live, 

That she might live, they died. 

And v,'hen her bright day dawned agaip, 

Dawned after years of dread, 

A grateful nation mournful went 

To seek its hero dead ; 

It sought for them in places all 

Swept by the battle tide. 

It built for them a garden home, 

And laid them side by side. 



And years of war, brought years of peace, 

Then came another day. 

When after winter's storms and frowns 

The roses blushed in May. 

And, lo! men, women, children, came, 

From places near and far. 

An army grand, yet unadorned 

With panoplies of war. 

They come adorned with flowery wreaths, 

Through the quiet shades to roam. 

Where their brave brothers sleeping lie 

In their still garden home. 

To strew their couch with fragrant leaves, 

To pray with fervent mien, 

Their fame may be forever bright. 

Their memory ever green, 



O brothers all, and sisters all, 
Of every race and age, 
Who from all places near and far 
Join in this pilgrimage; 



94 

Who by the powers of love are led, 
And guided all above, 
Let ns forget the days of bate 
Ou this great day of love. 

Let us forget the slaying hand, 
Forgive the erring will, 
Thanks to our falh-n brothers brave 
We are one Nation still. 

When, in 1880, the ill-iKlvised friends of U. S. Grant 
urged his nomination for the Presidency of the United 
States, for a third term, although such third term was not 
consecutive to his former incumbency, Roderick strongly 
opposed the movement and devoted considerable time to 
the organization of the party known as *' Anti Thiid Term 
Republicans." The national convention of tliat party met 
in the city of St. Louis, on May 6th, 1880. He was one 
of the Committee on Resolutions. Several members of 
the committee were in favor of making a personal attack 
in the resolutions, on General Grant by name, and of 
airinir some of the scandals connected with the second 
term of the ex-President. He strongly opposed any such 
course, and threatened to bring in a minority report, if it 
was persisted in. It was thereupon abandoned, but a 
resolution in the following words was adopted as a com- 
promise : — 

"That as Republicans we cannot be hero worshippers; 
and we demand from a party without a master, the nomi- 
nation of a candidate without a stain. " 

The convention also adopted the following resolution : — 

" That a national committee of 100 be appointed, and in- 
structed, in the event of the nomination of General Grant, to 
meet in the city of New York, at the call of the chairman 
of the committee, and there to act in such manner, as they 
shall deem best, to carry out the spirit and purpose of 
these resolutions. The said committee to be selected by a 
committee of eleven, and published at its earliest con- 
venience." 



95 

The committee of 100 was selected, but their names were 
never published. Eoderick, who attended the National 
Eepublican Convention, which met in that year in Chicago, 
had the list of the 100 in his possession, and was prepared 
to publish the call immediately upon the nomination of 
General Grant, should such an event occur. Fortunately 
such an event did not occur. The convention nominated 
James E. Garfield of Ohio for the Presidency, and thereby 
relieved from a painful embarrassment, many of the 
national delegates sitting in the convention, whose names 
were in the list of the committee of 100. 

Eoderick held the doctrine that municipal officers should 
be selected, as far as practicable, independent of their 
views on national issues, and with an eye single to their 
fitness for the position. A city, after all, is a mere busi- 
ness organization, and should be governed strictly on 
business principles. He made a number of efforts to ac- 
complish that result, but although several independent 
and fearless citizens joined him at times, the effort was 
always frustrated by what has been fittingly designated 
*' the cohesive power of public plunder." His firstsuccess 
was accomplished in 1897, when, together with four other 
gentlemen, all Eepublicans, he formed a committee, to 
defeat certain proposed amendments to the charter of the 
city of St. Louis, designed to perpetuate in power the cor- 
rupt Eepublican ring, then in control of city affairs. The 
ring was defeated by a vote of four to one. Encouraged 
by this success he tried at the municipal election of 1898 
to secure the nomination and election of an independent 
council ticket, by an alliance with the Democratic party. 
Although he was joined in that effort by many well-meaning 
Democrats, and among them by Mr. Jos. W. Folk, after- 
wards prominent as a fearless prosecuting attorney of the 
judicial district, and by Mr. Henry Hawes, President of 
the Board of Police Commissioners, he failed, since the ma- 
chinists of both parties combined to defeat the movement. 
The following brief address which he delivered, upon the first 



96 

assembling of independent citizens, who joined him in the 
movement, uill illustrate his views on the subject: — 

Gentlemen : 

The notices which have been sent to you have advised 
you of the objects of this meeting. It is to see whether by 
a common effort, in which parties of all political affiliations 
can join, the city of St. Louis can be rid of the rule of a 
ring, which has controlled its affairs for some time past. 
The initial steps looking towards that end were taken some 
time ago, but it was soon ascertained that there was a radical 
difference of opinion, between well-meaning men, having 
in the main the same end in view, as to the proper course 
to bo pursued. The ring, aware that it could not possibly 
succeed, without the support of the so-called better ele- 
ment in the party, began to make overtures some time ago 
to the effect, that it was willing to nominate such men for 
the respective municipal offices, as would be named to it 
by the so-called better element. Some well-meaning men 
thought, that it was a wise policy to avail themselves of these 
overtures, since no ticket could be successful without the 
assistance of the machine. Others, and myself among the 
number, were and are still of the opinion, that we could not 
afford to take as a matter of grace, what belonged to the 
people as a matter of right, namely the right to be repre- 
sented in its municipal affairs by men of integrity and 
capacity. 

It is needless for me to call to your attention the griev- 
ances of which we complain. Franchises of enormous value 
have been voted away, without any coiTcsponding benefit 
to the people. jSIen have boon placed into offices of great 
trust, and profit, as a reward for questionable political serv- 
ices, who were morally unfit to fill such oflSces. Men 
shown to bo corrupt were retained in office, although upon 
the functions which they exercised depended in many in- 
stances the safety of life and limb. An additional burden, 
amounting to twenty millions and more, was sought 



97 

to be imposed by local taxation upon the unfor- 
tunate property owners of this city, and the con- 
trol of this fund placed as far as possible into 
the hands of the ring, so that by means of this additional 
patronage it might perpetuate itself in power. When the 
people rose, and almost with one voice repudiated this last 
outrage, the ring first began to pause. At the convention 
held last fall for the nomination of local State officers, it 
made the same overtures which it makes now. It gra- 
ciously conceded that the so-called better element in the 
party should select a certain number of delegates to the 
convention, and graciously promised that the persons so 
named should be returned as delegates, reserving to itself 
the power of absolute control of that convention, by 
naming the majority of delegates, its own creatures, most 
of whom were dependent for their daily bread upon the 
persons who sent them there. You all know the history 
of that convention. It opened with resolutions, indorsing 
in the most fulsome terms an administration, the main 
measure of which but a few months ago had been repudia- 
ted by the voters of the city of St. Louis by the decisive 
vote of four to one. Representatives of the so-called bet- 
ter element sitting in that convention, were tendered the 
option of protesting against this breach of faith, and of 
endangering thereby the sole object for which they attended, 
namely, to secure the nomination of an acceptable ticket 
for high judicial and executive offices, ;or else keeping 
silent and thereby securing it. 

Gentlemen, many of us who were always Republicans, 
are of opinion, that no compact looking to the lasting ben- 
efit of the people of St. Louis can be made with the ring. 
Many of us who have always been Republicans, are of 
opinion, that whatever the temporary concessions may be, 
which the machine may make, they are made solely with 
the ultimate aim and object in view, of perpetuating itself 
in power. Many of us who have always been Republicans, 
are of opinion, that whenever a party degenerates into a 

7 



98 

mere organization for plunder, it has forfeited the right to 
call for our unconditional allegiance, and that the question 
of the welfare of the people of this great commonwealth 
rises above all party considerations. Being of that opin- 
ion we have called you together, to determine in what 
manner the object which all of us have in view, can best 
be secured. 

The success of any ticket at the approaching election 
depends on two considerations: First. What men com- 
pose the ticket, and the next by whom it is put forward. 
If the people of the city of St. Louis have confidence both 
in the men selected, and in the men who thus select them, 
such a ticket is bound to succeed. If they lack confidence 
in either it is bound to fail. 

Whatever action you may adopt at this meeting, let it 
be prompt and decisive. I trust we are all animated hy 
one common sentiment, and there is neither time nor need 
for any extended discussion. 

After the reduction by Spain of the insurrection in Cuba 
proved ineffective, although the war was waged by the 
mother country against its colony, for several years with 
the most excessive cruelty, the United States remonstrated 
asrainst its further continunce. The remonstrances remain- 
ing unheeded. Congress declared war against Spain. The 
proclamation distinctly stated, that the war was to be waged 
in the interest of humanity, and for the protection of the 
interest of the United States and its domestic peace, but it 
disclaimed in emi)hatic terms any intention of conquest, or 
aggrandizement of its own territory by the intervening 
power. Spain was a feeble and bankrupt nation, and every 
rellectinjr nian foresaw how the war would terminate. The 
inevitable conse(]uences of a victorious confiict waged by 
the United States, were also foreseen and deplored by 
manv. Roderick, at the outbreak of the war, writing to 
some friends in Europe, predicted, that at its termination, 
the thirst for glory, and the spirit of aggrandizement. 



99 

would override the spirit of justice in the people. Unfor- 
tunately these predictions were verified by events. For 
the first time since the emancipation of the American colo- 
nies, the cardinal doctrine of their own declaration of 
independence, " Governments are instituted among men, 
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ' ' 
was repudiated, by the party in power. It was supplanted 
by phrases such as *' the glory of the flag, " " manifest des- 
tiny, " " American world power, " ' < survival of the fittest, ' ' 
and others i equally high sounding, and equally meaningless 
without proper limitations, but well designed to inflame the 
imagination of the people, at the cost of their sense of 
justice, and spirit of liberty. 

A cruel and relentless war was instituted against a semi- 
barbarous people in the far Orient, and they were 
slaughtered by tens of thousands, because they dared to 
maintain that the cardinal doctrine of the American 
declaration of independence was no sham. This war was 
instituted and carried on without the sanction of Consress, 
under the pretense that necessity overrode the Constitution, 
and that it was simply carried on for the purpose of de- 
fending our possessions after the ratification of the treaty 
with Spain had been secured by very questionable means 
in one of the houses of Congress. The doctrine was 
boldly announced that the war power of the executive was 
not limited by the Constitution. Those who had the 
courage to denounce these violations of the fundamental 
law of the land, among them some of the leaders in the 
Republican party, were denounced as "traitors to the 
flag," whatever that may mean, and a flunkey press 
became clamorous for their indictment for high treason. 

This was not the only deleterious result of our de- 
parture from the earlier traditions of the country. En- 
gland became engaged in a still more cruel and relentless 
war, with the two independent States, constituting the 
South African Republics. Under a claim of suzerainty, 
which had no legal foundation, it engaged in a war with 



100 

them which was avowedly a war of conquest and plunder. 
Although the cruelties of this war exceeded in their bar- 
barity those waged by Spain against Cuba, although the 
reconccntrado camps, which had so shocked our tender 
sense of humanit}', when they were employed by Spain, 
were duplicated l)y England in South Africa in an aggra- 
vated form, we did not dare to raise our voice m pro- 
test, for fear that by doing so we might antagonize En- 
gland, the possessor of the most powerful fleet in the world, 
and by doing so endanger the security of our own plun- 
der in the Philippines. 

The sympathies of the American people were strongly 
enlisted in favor of the struggling Boers. Meetings were 
held throughout the country for the purpose of expressing 
such sympathy, and securing material aid in their behalf. 
At one of these meetings, held at the 14th Street Theater 
in St. Louis, January 29, 1900, Roderick spoke as fol- 
fows : — 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies akd Gentlemen : 

I take the mission of this meeting to be threefold. If 
our government is one l)y the people and for the people, 
as we claim it is, then it is not only our right, but our 
bouuden duty, to advise our executive at the national cap- 
ital of our judgment and sentiments, touching the deplor- 
able war which one nation is now waging against another 
in distant South Africa. It is only when thus advised that 
our executive can act with propriety, should a fitting occa- 
sion arise, for offering our friendly mediation to both the 
contending powers. 

If we are a sincere people, as we claim to be, then it is 
our duty not to mislead our English brethren across the 
ocean by our silence into the belief, that our sympathies are, 
or ever can be with them in this struggle. It is our duty 
to tell them, that if messages to that effect were sent to 
Ihem from this country, they were inspired by only a 
fraction of the American people, a fraction with whom 



101 

commercial advantages outrank all other considerations, 
and which I trust is becoming smaller from day to day. It 
is our duty to inform them, that they cannot count even 
on our moral support, for any other purpose, than to enable 
them to make a fair and honorable peace. 

If we are a liberty-loving people, as we claim to be, and 
as I trust we are, and ever will remain, then it is our duty 
to set ourselves right before the entire civilized world, and 
that without any ifs or buts, by the declaration, that our 
sympathies of right are, and ever must be, with a people 
who fight for their homes and firesides, and for maintaining 
the fundamental American doctrine, that " governments 
are instituted among men, deriving tlieir just powers 
from the consent of the governed." It is our duty to 
send our message of Godspeed to that small baud of 
heroic men, who now dispute the advance of the invader of 
their rights, step by step, and who in reliance on the justice 
of their cause, and with a transcendent faith in a just God 
have proclaimed, that they may die, but will never be con- 
quered alive. 

In fulfilling this, our threefold mission here to-day, let 
us act calmly, and with moderation, and with that dignity 
which becomes the citizens of a nation which, if moderate 
and wise, is destined to be at no distant day, the most 
powerful nation upon the face of the globe. 

I was gratified to see a few weeks ago a semi-official an- 
nouncement in the public prints, that at some stage of the 
controversy between England and the South African repub- 
lics, our national executive made inquiries of the English 
government, whether an offer of mediation on the part of 
this government would be acceptable. I was not at all 
gratified to learn from the same source that the reply 
received was not at all encouraging. I did not see it stated 
whether a similar inquiry was made of the other party, but 
I assume it was not, since that party is in the unfortunate 
position, of having no accredited representative in Wash- 
ington. It is a source of regret that out of excessive 



102 

courtesy the offer was not made directly to both parties, 
instead of being made in the ^hape of an inquiry, which 
was addressed to one of the parties only. 

A very respectable portion of the American people and 
of the American press had appealed to the executive at 
Washington to make an offer of friendly mediation to both 
governments. The controversy had not entered an acute 
stage for a long time — in fact, not until the invasion of 
English territory by the Transvaal forces, and such an in- 
vasion did not take place until war became unavoidable, 
and then only in order to secure to the Boers a more 
desirable line of defense. 

The American executive was, and still is, in a more 
favorable position to make such an offer than that of any 
other first-class power. The history of the country 
abounds in precedents where such an offer was made by 
our executive, without any preliminary inquiry, and I know 
of no case where the offer led to the rupture of friendly 
relations. The American people have no territorial rights 
to guard in South Africa, and I trust to a merciful Provi- 
dence that tbej' never will have, there or elsewhere, any 
such rights to guard beyond the confines of North 
America. The American people are, and were, known to 
be friendly with l)oth the contending parties. All the tra- 
ditions of the American pcoi)le were in harmony with such 
a course, and the only apparent obstacle was that the exec- 
utive was hampered by its own course in another part of 
the globe, which was in seeming conflict with such 
traditions. 

But , Mr .Chairman, it is not too late to adopt such a course 
now, and I hope that this meeting will before it adjourns 
request the national executive to offer his .services to both 
the contending powers, to bring about by mediation a set- 
tlement of the pending controversy, and thus place upon 
the power refusing such friendly, offer the responsibility of 
continuinj' the war with all its horrors. "We shall then 
have done our duty in the interest of peace and humanity. 



without being chargeable with selfish motives. Let the 
consequences in case of refusal rest where they properly 

belong. 

I have heard it said that England cannot accept such 
mediation now. That if it did so, it would lose its prestige 
as a first-class power, since it has, after throwing into the 
scale all its energies, wealth and power, not been able to 
gain a single material advantage, over a foe infinitely in- 
ferior in numbers and wealth, whom English writers have 
derided as demi-savages. I have heard it said before 
England can Hsten to any overtures of peace, the prestige 
of ''her arms must be re-established by a signal victory. 
Has anyone ever questioned the courage and endurance of 
the English warrior or soldier? What nation can point to 
more glorious fields of victory (if carnage can ever be 
<7lorious) than Cressy, Poitiers and Agincourt, Blenheim 
and Hohenlinden, Talavera and Waterloo. But while En- 
gland can point to all these with martial pride, let her also 
not forget Princeton, Yorktown and Saratoga, and let her 
remember, that victory is not always to the strong, but 
sometimes to the vigilant and the just. 

How long, do I ask, Mr. Chairman, is this carnage to 
continue in order to vindicate something which needs no 
vindication? Is it to continue until every household in 
England mourns for a slain father, son or brother, and 
until every kopje in distant South Africa is turned 
into a vast burial ground, where friend and foe sleep 
together in the peaceful harmony of death? Is the con- 
temptible bauble of military renown worth all these sacri- 
fices? 

I proceed to the consideration of what I consider the sec- 
ond mission of this meeting, and of similar meetings, that 
are held East and West throughout the vast extent of our 
common country. It is , to disabuse the English people in re- 
gard to our sympathies in this struggle. We all sympathize 
with the English people, if by that term the men are meant 



104 

who amid untold hardships are sacrificing their lives in 
far-off lands because 

" Theirs not to question why, 
Theirs not to make reply, 
Tiielrs but to do and die." 

But if by the English people is meant that small coterie 
of desperate and greedy stock gamblers, who in opposition 
to the better instincts of the nation, in opposition to its 
humane sovereign, in opposition even to the leaders of the 
government itself, have brought about this war, then God 
forbid that we should sympathize with such a set. On 
what could such sympathy be founded? On the prejudice 
of race? The American people, it is true, drew their first 
contingent in larger numbers from England, but have long 
since become a conglomerate of races, to which all nations 
have contributed, and many of them in far larger numbers 
than England. The American })eople have no prejudice of 
race. They recognize but one race, the human race. They 
extend their sympathies to any portion of that race, in its 
struggle with another portion, according to the right 
and wrong of the controversy, and guided by no other 
considerations. 

There is indeed a fraction of the American people, and 
I concede a considerable fraction, whose synipalliies are 
with England in this war. We have close and extensive 
commercial relations with Great Britain, and our commer- 
cial relations with the Boers are next to nominal. English 
reverses are apt to affect our commercial securities. Many 
of our citizens are not familiar with the merits of the con- 
troversy, and as they know by personal intercourse one of 
the parties only, are apt to conclude that that party is in 
the right. Others erroneously confound our course in the 
Philippines, which is partly at least the result of an unfor- 
tunate incident of our war with Spain, with England's 
course in South Africa, and because they are in favor of 



105 

our retention of the Philippines, deem it proper to approve 
of an English conquest of the South African Eepublics. 

But, Mr. Chairman, I deny that the majority of typical 
Americans, or any number near it, do, or can approve the 
course which England has pursued in its endeavor to make 
the South African Republics part of its colonial empire. 
The typical American is not an animated money bag ; but 
is bone, sinew and principle. Americans would have to 
deny the legitimacy of their own existence as a nation, 
were they to deny the right of the Boers to maintain their 
independence by force of arms. We would have to repu- 
diate the noblest and truest sentiments of the Declaration 
of Independence, that Magna Charta of our own liberties, 
were we to do so. We would have to take our ideals from 
their high pedestals, and fling them into the dust, to be 
trampled upon, were we to do so. We would have to be 
willing to trade the liberties of a nation for commercial 
advantages, were we to do so. My idea of the typical 
American is far too high, to enable me to conceive even 
the possibility, that he could ever sink so low. 

This brings me to the last inquiry. Is this meeting jus- 
tified to extend its sympathies to the Boers, or should we 
as citizens remain strictly neutral in this quarrel. This is 
not a question of sentiment only. Before we pass upon it, 
we must decide for ourselves the right or wrong of this 
controversy, because it behooves us above all things to be 
just. 

That every community has the right to regulate its own 
domestic affairs we all concede. Our Constitution con- 
cedes it to every State, although no one ever claimed that 
one of our States possesses sovereign powers. Internal 
regulations of communities may not in all cases meet with 
our approval, but that does not change their right and 
power to make them. Some of the internal regulations of 
the Transvaal were not in accord with modern exigencies, 
and principally the laws affecting naturalization of foreign 
born residents, who were excluded in the main from all 



106 

participation in the affairs of the government. I concede 
that these regulations were o})solete, being made under 
circumstances which have since radically changed, and that 
there was good ground on the part of England to remon- 
strate with the Transvaal government, and to ask in a 
friendly spirit, that the rigor of laws which injuriously 
affected a numerous class of English residents should l)e 
changed. So far so good. The English government made 
such remonstrance, and the Transvaal government expressed 
its readiness to make very liberal concessions in that be- 
half. Seeinsr that the Transvaal government was in a 
yielding mood, the English government pressed one step 
further, and insisted that certain claims of English suze- 
rainty be also conceded, although the Transvaal govern- 
ment with apparent good reason claimed, that such claims 
had been waived, if not abrogated by treaties many years 
ago. The English government insisted on this recognition 
as a condition sina qua non, and as the Boers could not 
yield that point without virtually surrendering their inde- 
pendence, the war ensued. 

It is the old, old stor}-^ of the fable of the wolf and iamb, 
who have repaired to the brook to quench their thirst, ex- 
cept that in the present case the lamb declined to be de- 
voured, and has developed fighting qualities which the wolf 
did not expect. 

It was evident ever since the Jameson raid several years 
ago, that it was the aim and object of certain desperate 
political gamblers in Great Britain to bring about tliis very 
result, and that it was their aim, to satisfy their individual 
greed by bringing about the absorption of the South Afri- 
can Republics into Great Britain's colonial empire. That 
it was their aim to force the Transvaal government into 
yielding point l)y point, to a point of extreme tension, and 
to force a war upon it when that last point was reached. 
Every careful observer was aware of this, and so was the 
Transvaal government, and it prepared for the unavoidable 
struggle. 



107 

These charges are not made by me, they are made by a 
number of eminent and fearless men in England, who like 
Mr. Morley have occupied the highest positions in public 
life, who enjoy the confidence of the English people, and 
who do not hesitate, even at the risk of their darling pop- 
vilarity, to denounce this impious war, as brought about by 
a set of political adventurers for their own benefit. They 
are made by men who, while sincere patriots, can rise to 
the moral elevation of saying: "I am for my country 
when right, but not for my country right or wrong," 
and who have the transcendent courage to say so, even in 
the hour of England's humiliation. 

This is not a new question as far as this country, its peo- 
ple, and its government are concerned. When, forty years 
ago, the people of my own native land were driven to arms 
to defend their chartered rights and liberties against the 
invasions of the Imperial government of Austria, this 
people openly expressed their sympathies with the Hun- 
garian cause, and this government sent its accredited agent, 
A. Dudley Mann, to Hungary, to inform itself of the right 
or wrong of the struggle, for the purpose of enabling it to 
recognize the rights of Hungary as an independent State, 
should circumstances warrant such recognition. When the 
minister of Austria in Washington remonstrated, and had 
the temerity to call the people of America, and this gov- 
ernment, to account, what was our reply? Our Secretary 
of State replied among other things that we had the right 
to recognize as independent any State we saw fit so to recog- 
nize, and had frequently done so, without even giving there- 
by cause for a breach of friendly relations. But he went 
further and boldly announced: — 

*' The United States have abstained at all times from 
acts of interference with the political changes of Europe. 
They cannot, however, fail to cherish always a lively in- 
terest in the fortunes of a nation strucjorlino; for institutions 
like their own, * * * When the people of the United 



108 

States behold the people of foreign countries, with- 
out that interference, spontaneously moving toward the 
adoption of institutions like their own, it surely can- 
not be expected of them to remain wholly indifferent 
spectators." 

And in his final note, the same Secretary said: "The 
undersigned took occasion in a former note, to declare the 
principles and policy which tlie United States maintained as 
appropriate to their condition, and as being indeed fixed 
and fastened upon them, by their character, their history, 
and their position among the nations of the world, 
and it may be regarded as certain that these principles 
and this jiolicy will not be abanduued or departed from, 
until some extraordinary cliange sliall tal£o place in tlie 
general current of human affairs." 

These were the sentiments and these are the words of 
our then Secretary of State, the words of the greatest 
American of his time and generation, the words of Daniel 
"Webster. They expressed at that time the sentiment of 
the entire American people, and I trust they express that 
sentiment to-day. 

There has been since then no extraordinary change in 
the general cuiTcnt of human affairs, such as would make 
these sentiments inapplicable to the present generation. 
AVhile the Boers confine themselves to the defense of their 
homes and institutions, and do not themselves wage wars 
of conquest, except as a means of defense, their cause is 
just, and deserves the sympathy of all right-thinking men. 
Their heroism in the defense of that cause has challenged 
the admiration of the civilized world. And because their 
cause is just, and they are lighting for their liberties, they 
are entitled to the sympathies of a just people, who claim, 
as we do, to hold on high the beacon light of liberty. It 
is for these reasons and no other that I claim the right to 
say to them, in the name of all who are assembled here 
to-day: Go on, bravo Boers. God speed your work. 



109 

Our sympathies are with you in jour heroic struggle, 
and will remain with you until you have conquered your 
permanent independence, and an honorable peace, or 
honorable graves. 

In 1900, Win. McKinley, who had occupied the Presi- 
dential chair for the preceding three years, was renominated 
with great unanimity, for the Presidency, by the National 
Eepublican Convention. By that time several of the 
founders of the Republican party, and some of its most 
conscientious leaders, such as Schurz and Boutwell, had 
left it. Hoar, the venerable Senator from Massachusetts, 
was still hanging to it by a feeble thread. A number of 
prominent Republicans in all parts of the Union, declared 
open war on its nominee. The party had become the 
representative of commercialism, and the admitted repre- 
sentative of the money element, from which it derived its 
main support, in unlimited means. Corruption in national 
and municipal affairs had assumed gigantic proportions. 

Had the Democrats been wise, and nominated in oppo- 
sition a conservative statesman, they would probably have 
succeeded in the canvass. Contrary to all precedent, they 
renominated Wm. J. Bryan, who was their nominee four 
years before, and who was then badly defeated. Mr. 
Bryan was a man of brilliant parts, and indefatigable 
energy, but his views on the question of the national cur- 
rency, and the powers of the judiciary, were such, as to 
thoroughly antagonize the conservative element, which 
generally exercises a controlling influence in national 
elections. 

Roderick while thoroughly opposed to Mr. Bryan's views, 
on the questions above stated, concluded to support him for 
the Presidency as the lesser of two evils. On October 18, 
1900, he addressed an open letter to the St. Louis Republic, 
the leading Democratic journal in the city of St. Louis, in 
which he gave his reasons for so doing. The editorial of 
that journal, in calling attention to the letter, contained 
among others these statements : — 



110 

The Bepuhlic invites attention to the powerful article by 
Judge Romhauer this morning. It is unnecessary to 
introduce Judge Eombauer to Missouri voters. He has 
been one of the leaders of his party, and is quite as Avell 
known as a leader of his profession. Love of freedom is 
stronger in him, than love of party. Dislike of hypocrisy 
is stronger, than the habit of disagreeing with political 
opponents. Nothing has appeared in this campaign more 
logical and convincing in itself. Very few statements had 
behind them the impetus of such moral force. 

The letter was as follows : — 

Editors St. Louis Republic : 

A few weeks ago, in a special dispatch to the Republic 
from Washington, my name was mentioned among the 
names of several hundred Republicans, more or less prom- 
inent, who at the approaching election intended to cast 
their votes for William J. Bryan. Ever since, I have been 
harassed by personal and political friends, to give them an 
explanation of the reasons for this supposed change in my 
political faith . I have been stopped on the street by 
strangers, I have been beleaguered at my office by re- 
porters and others, until the constant interruption began 
to seriously interfere with my professional duties. I avail 
myself of your kind offer to use the columns of the 
Republic for making a public statement on the subject in 
reply to all these inquiries. 

I shall cast my ballot for William J. Bryan at the 
approaching election, because I am a Repul)lican, and be- 
cause in my opinion he is a far better exponent than 
William ^IcKiulov of every cardinal i)rin(ii)le which has 
called the Rciniblican party into being, and which has se- 
cured to it the almost uninterrupted confidence of the 
American people for a period of nearly forty years. 

I have decided to do so upon mature deliberation. I 
have been a Republican since I have been a voter. I 



Ill 

founded the first Republican club in Quincy , 111. , forty years 
ao"o, and have never since voted for the national ticket of 
any other party. My most intimate personal relations are 
almost exclusively with Republicans, and my clientage con- 
sists mainly of Republicans. I have been often honored 
by the Republican party with a selection for what I con- 
sider the highest offices within the gift of the people, and 
have filled many such offices. This of itself should satisfy 
my friends, that my present course is not dictated by any 
personal interest, but is adopted because I place the interests 
of the American people above my own, and because I cannot 
better repay the many honors which it has conferred upon 
me, than by using my feeble efforts to save its honor from 
being tarnished, and its true interests from being sacrificed. 

THE PARAMOUNT ISSUE. 

I consider the paramount issue in this campaign to be 
this : Shall we adhere to the principles announced in our 
Declaration of Independence that, in order to secure life, 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness, governments are es- 
tablished among men, deriving their just powers from the 
consent of the governed, or shall we, abandoning that 
ground, start out on a career of plundering weaker people, 
under the modern device of survival of the fittest? 
Whether the new doctrine is called imperialism , or is called 
colonial policy, or is designated by the more alluring term 
of expansion of our territory and commercial relations, is 
immaterial to me. The manner in which the doctrine has 
been initiated, and is pushed to its unavoidable consequences, 
involves a radical departure from the doctrines proclaimed 
by the Declaration of Independence, an adherence to which 
has made this people happy at home, and honored abroad. 
A sophistic effort is being made to demonstrate, that the 
doctrine of expansion is nothing new ; that it was initiated 
under the administration of the author of the Declaration 
of Independence, who must have known best what that 



112 

declaration meant. Let me examine this argument before 
pronouncing judgment : — 

The object of the Louisiana Purchase was to secure to the 
great bulk of the territory of this nation an outlet to the 
ocean 1)V waterways, the only important moans of com- 
munication then known, and to protect our "Western borders 
from the invasion of foreign powers. It was eminently a 
measure of self-defense. It was, as the sequel demonstra- 
ted, eminently wise. The principles announced in the 
Declaration of Independence were emphasized in the treaty 
by which we acquired that territory. 

Article 3 of that treaty provides: "The inhabitants of 
the ceded territory shall l)e incorporated in the Union of 
the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, accord- 
ing to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the 
enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of 
citizens of the United States; and, in the meantime, they 
shall be maintained and protected in the enjoyment of their 
liberty, property, and the religion which they profess." 

Every one of the treaties by which we acquired contigu- 
ous territory since, contains provisions similar in character, 
if not identical. See articles 5 and 6 of the treaty of 1819 
with Si)ain ; articles 8 and 9 of the treaty with Mexico, and 
article 3 of the treaty with Eussia. 

The recent treaty with Spain is the first which in that 
respect contains a radical departure. 

Article 9 of that treaty provides: •♦Spanish subjects, 
natives of the Peninsula, residing in the territory over 
which Spain, by the present treaty, relinquishes or cedes 
her sovereignty, may remain in such territory, or may re- 
move therefrom, retaining in eitiier event all their rights 
of property, including the right to sell or dispose of such 
property or of its proceeds, and they shall also have the 
right to carry on their industry, commerce and profession, 
being subject in respect thereof to such laws as are appli- 
cable to other foreigners. In case they remain in the ter- 



113 

ritory they may preserve their allegiance to the crown of 
Spain, by making before a court of record, within one year 
from the date of the exchange of ratifications of this 
treaty, a declaration of their decision to preserve such alleg- 
iance, in default of which declaration, they shall be held 
to have renounced it, and to have adopted the nationality 
of the territory in which they may reside. 

" The civil rights and political status of the native in- 
habitants of the territories hereby ceded to the United 
States shall be determined by the Congress." 

Look at the contrast between this and former treaties. 
Former treaties guard the rights of the inhabitants of the 
ceded territory, and guarantee to them the enjoyment of 
all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the 
United States. The last treaty guarantees to the inhabit- 
ants of the ceded territory nothing, unless they are natives 
of the Peninsula, by which the Peninsula of Spain is 
meant. The balance of the inhabitants are traded off as so 
many cattle . Even as to the former, the only provision is 
that we will not take away their property, and that their 
civil and political rights shall be determined by the Con- 
gress. What is meant by the nationality of the territory 
it is difficult to say, since it is expressly denied by the organs 
of the present administration, that these territories have 
any nationality, and it is boldly asserted that their inhabit- 
ants are subjects of the United States. 

It must be borne in mind that these unfortunate inhabit- 
ants include not only the Tagals and other Eastern races, 
but also all whites who did not have the good fortune of 
being natives of the Peninsula of Spain. Not a word in 
this treaty of their being incorporated into the union of the 
United States. The word " subject" is not used, because 
the American palate was presumably deemed too sensitive 
to swallow it, but the circumlocution, of the term by phrases 
left purposely vague, can deceive no one. 

Governor Roosevelt, who is an honest man, although 
in bad company on the expansion issue, in a recent 

8 



114 

speech delivered by him at Evansville, Ind., while speak- 
ing on the subject, is reported to have said: "Evi- 
dently Thomas Jefferson thought that we could buy the 
right to govern the Indians of the Louisiana Purchase, 
and Andrew Jackson thought we could similarly acquire 
the riirht to gfoveru the Indians of Florida." Governor 
Koosevelt, while evidently sincere, has endeavored to force 
diverging lines into a parallel. First, the Indian is a con- 
dition sin generis, and is recognized as such in the Con^^ti- 
tution of the United States. Although a savage, he had a 
government of his own, with which the TTnited States 
entered into solemn treaties. His title to the territory was 
not extinguished by thetreaties made with France or Spain, 
but remained, and was subsequently acquired by the 
United States by treaties with himself. He carried on war 
and made peace with Indians of rival tribes, without any 
interference with the Government of the United States, 
and even when making war against the United States was 
treated as a warring nation and not as a rebel. The Indians 
thus constituted a government within a government. If 
the Filipino or Porto Rican is not a citizen, is he to be 
treated as the Indian? Is ho to be permitted to retain his 
tribal organization? Is he to be an Indian "not taxed" 
and not to be taxed? And what is to become of him in 
those portions of the territory not under tribal organiza- 
tion? Is he to be subjected to taxation in support of a 
government in which he has no voice, to the jurisdiction of 
tribunals, and to a system of laws, foreign to his nature? 
That parallel will not answer, and Governor Roosevelt 
would better try again. It remains patent and admits of 
no contradiction that the recent treaty with Spain is the 
iirst assertion by this Government, that governments do not 
derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, 
and hence is a distinct repudiation of the fundamental doc- 
trine of the declaration of our own independence. 



115 

TRUSTS' 

The word trust in its legal sense is the most sacred of 
lesal terms. It is the creature of the refined conscience 
of judges. It means that where the remedies of the com- 
mon law proved inadequate there should be a remedy for 
the oppressed to protect them against fraud and the abuse 
of confidential relations, and that this remedy shall be 
afforded by a tribunal representing the highest conscience 
in the law, and one which in its mode of affording relief 
shall be practically unlimited. This term has in recent 
years been prostituted in the most shameless manner, by 
calling illegal combinations, created for the purpose of 
forestalling the market and stifling competition, by the 
name of trusts. I do not in this connection refer to trust 
companies proper, who in their corporate capacity exercise 
similar functions as trustees in equity, because their func- 
tions have proved highly beneficial, but to the other so- 
called trusts, which by means of the aggregation of an 
immense capital have made themselves masters in control- 
ling the market, from a steel rail to a peanut. It is true 
that these trusts are measurably the growth of an unjustly 
discriminating tariff, but they are still more so of the fos- 
tering patronage of the national executive, which, instead 
of checking this fungus growth of our indutries, has aided 
it as far as it lay in its power. While both Congress and 
the State legislatures have made attempts to check this 
evil by legislation, and while the highest tribunal of the 
land, whenever the question came before it, has enforced 
such legislation in the most thorough manner, the national 
executive has done just the reverse. It seems that it was 
willing that these so-called trusts should plunder the peo- 
ple, if in return they would permit themselves to be plun- 
dered, to keep the administration in power. The highest 
law officers of the Government are selected from those 
known to be friendly to these corporations, and the prin- 
cipal mouthpiece of the administration, proclaims in his 
campaign speeches that such combinations do not exist. 



116 

I realize that many enterprises cannot be successfully 
prosecuted without the aggregation of capital, but I realize 
no li'ss that the aggregation of capital for the purpose of 
controlling the market in any commodity, raising or low- 
ering prices at the whim, or in the interest of the producer, 
is detrimental to the industries of the country, and makes a 
dependent tool and slave, both of the small producer and 
laborer, and will, if not checked, in course of time destroy 
the manhood of the people. 

" 111 fares the land to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay." 

I do regard the war made on these so-called trusts a just 
war in the best interests of the people. If there is to be 
any remedy of tliis evil, it certainly cannot be expected to 
result from the re-election of Mr. McKinle}-, who is noto- 
riously friendly to these combinations, and for whose elec- 
tion they furnish in the main the sinews of war. Mr. 
McKinley has a decided inclination to show himself grateful 
to contributors, and has proved this on former occasions. 

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. 

The main champion of the reform of the civil service 
was Mr. Pendleton, of Ohio, a Democrat. The Republi- 
cans at an early day recognized it as a good thing, and 
made it one of their main planks in the national platform. 
They have retained it as such ever since. I was always an 
earnest civil service reformer, was one of the first officers 
of the State organization in Missouri, and in a limited way 
tried to give practical effect to my views, by aj)pointiug 
those whom I could appoint by virtue of my official 
stations, on the basis of merit alone, and regardless of 
party affiliations. I considered and still consider that 
parties are established for the advocacy and practical 
realization of measures beneficial to the people, and 
are something more than organizations for the purpose 
of securing pul)lic plunder. I also fully realize that 



117 

th3 reform of the civil service is as important, if not more 
so, in the administration of our municipal affairs, than it 
is in the administration of our national affairs, and have 
always been an earnest advocate of such municipal reform. 

Shortly after the accession of Mr. McKinley to the 
presidency, an effort was made in the largest city of the 
Union to bring about a thorough reform of the civil ser- 
vice. Men of the highest standing and character in both 
of the leading parties took an active part in it. The head 
of the ticket was a Republican, the president of one of the 
leading American colleges, and a gentleman of extraor- 
dinary probity, intelligence and force of character. Mr. 
McKinley threw the weight of the national administration 
against him. A respectable gentleman, and ex-member of 
the Cabinet, was put up against him as the administration 
candidate, even though there was not the faintest proba- 
bility of his election. The reformers, mainly Republicans, 
were defeated, and the only satisfaction they had was, that 
the candidate of the administration was the last in the 
race. 

This disgraceful exhibition of a President, standing on a 
platform, one of the main planks of which advocated civil 
service reform, was followed by an exhibition on his part 
far more disgraceful. In order to carry the election in 
Ohio two years ago, it was deemed expedient to create a 
number of vacancies in public offices. The pie counter had 
to be enlarged. With one stroke of the pen, the President 
struck thousands from the list of the classified service, in 
order that their places might be filled with supporters to 
be rewarded. 

I say it without fear of contradiction, that since the 
origin of the civil service reform agitation, and of 
the going into effect of the civil service reform 
law, there never has been a more bare-faced and 
shameless repudiator of civil service reform than the 
present chief executive. If anything could aggravate the 
offense committed by him two years ago, and immediately 



118 

preceding the Ohio election, it is his hypocritical reference 
to the matter in his letter of acceptance, where he speaks 
of this act as being done in the best interest of the civil 
service. 

While this issue is not paramount, it is of sufficient im- 
portance to make mo cast my vote against Mr. McKinley. 
If any honest civil service reformer can reconcile it with 
his conscience to cast his vote for him, he is welcome to do 
so. 

Having thus stated three reasons, each of which would be 
sufficient to lead me to cast my vote against Mr. McKinley, 
let me briefly refer to the reasons which my friends urge 
.should induce me to cast my vote for him, and compare 
briefly their respective impf)rtance. 

THE MONEY ISSUE. 

It is well known that I am and always was, what is known 
as a sound money man. I believe in the gold standard, 
and believed in it long before Mr. McKinley did. Were 
that the only, or even the main, issue before the country, 
I would cast my vote against Mr. Bryan, with whose 
honest vagaries on that subject I have no sympathy. I 
believe that on that question the overwhelming sentiment 
of tlie country is opposed to Mr. Bryan. It was four 
years ago, and conditions have not changed since then. 
While Mr. Bryan, if elected, may find himself called 
upon to reopen the agitation on that subject, such agita- 
tion must necessarily be brief. He will soon find out that 
he can accomplish nothing, that the great bulk of the 
P^astern Democrats are against him, and since he is a man 
of innate common sense, will drop the agitation. Even if 
the next Congress, as many claim, should contain a Dem- 
ocratic majority, no one is insane enough to believe that it 
will contain a majority in sympathy with Mr. Bryan's views 
on the money question. That the agitation may have its 
temporary bad effect, I freely concede. That it can have 
even approximately as bad an effect as the utter departure 



119 

from the traditions of the Government, as the repudiation of 
every sentiment on the strength of which we invoked and 
acquired the respect and admiration of mankind, I deny. 
I thank my Creator that I am capable of conceiving that 
there is something which is entitled to more consideration 
than money. 

The discussion between Mr. Schurz and Secretary Gage 
on this subject, which I have read and followed with great 
interest, has satisfied me that the danger arising from Mr. 
Bryan's election, as far as it concerns the stability of our 
currency, is, if not nominal, still hardly entitled to serious 
consideration. 

THE FULL DINNER PAIL. 

The country is unquestionably prosperous in one sense. 
Its aggregate wealth has greatly increased during the last 
four years. That increase has been in excess of the in- 
crease of the population, and hence has brought about a 
corresponding increase of the wealth per capita. On the 
other hand, the equal distribution of wealth is far worse 
than it was four years ago. Capital has concentrated in 
enormous quantities in the hands of single individuals, and 
corporations, to an extent to create a menace to free insti- 
tutions, and, as a result, many individuals have become com- 
paratively poor. Many of the rich have become richer, and 
of the poor poorer. This is not healthy prosperitj^. While 
the dinner pail is overflowing in certain quarters, it holds 
but a pittance of food in others. The statistics published 
in connection with the recent strike in the anthracite coal 
regions of Pennsylvania, the accuracy of which has not 
been denied, tend to show that while we have more multi- 
millionaires than any other country, our helots are rapidly 
increasing, and their wretchedness is almost equal to those 
of other countries, excepting, always, India, where owing 
to the benign colonial policy of Great Britain, millions 
starve to death. As far as prosperity is the result of good 
crops, and foreign wars enabling us to dispose of our pro- 



120 

duce at a profit, the administration cannot take any more 
credit for it than it can be charged with the calamity of 
the Galveston disaster. It has not yet acquired a fee simple 
to the sunshine and the storm. 

OUR FOREIGN POLICY. 

The situation of our foreign relations, which confronted 
the administration during the last few years, was a difficult 
one. Another President might not have done much better 
than Mr. McKinley did, but no President could possibly 
have done any worse. The cruel oppression of the Cubans 
by Spain aroused the indignation of every American, and 
the administration was forced into the war by jiopular 
sentiment. The war may not have been justified by the 
loose code of ethics termed international law; our interfer- 
ence may have been, in a certain sense, quixotic, but it was 
a war in recoguitionof the brotherhood of man, a war in sup- 
port of the noble sentiments of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, and, even if a folly, it was a folly noble and sublime. 
When we drew the sword, we proclaimed to the world that 
it was done, not for our own aggrandizement, but for per- 
mitting a people cruelly oppressed to govern itself, and 
work out its own salvation. Not three years have elapsed 
since then, and we find ourselves using the very methods of 
oppressing a people in the Philippines, which the Spaniards 
used in Cuba. The administration has placed the American 
people before the world in the position of a self-convicted 
liar. If we do not mend our ways, we will shortly have 
to wage a war against the Cubans and Porto Ricans, as we 
wage a war against the Filipinos. A war alike unwarranted 
by the principles of humanity, or by the Constitution of the 
United States, which j)rovides that Congress alone shall 
have power to declare war. 

I have heard many eminent jurists, prominent members 
of the Republican party, declare that the war which we are 
wasinirin the far East, is in derojriition of the Constitution. 
In this view I fully concur. One of the most eminent 



121 

jurists in the land, and a former Republican President, 
declared but a few days ago, that the tariff we imposed 
on Porto Rico is in derogation of the Constitution. Has 
the Constitution become a past issue as well as the 
Declaration of Independence? It seems so, when servile 
organs of the administration dare to denounce those as 
guilty of high treason who dare to defend it. As a political 
measure, our war in the Philippines is a crime, as a com- 
mercial and financial venture it is a blunder. The cost to 
date would have duplicated manifold the cost of our Asiatic 
squadron, even had it been entirely destroyed by our own 
act. Its cost past and to come, cannot be repaid within 
this century by the advantages to our commerce and 
increase of our revenue. Shall the American people 
be taxed to death to open new fields of speculation to 
its favored few? And what about the thousands of its 
heroic sons who are killed far from their home, by pesti- 
lence and war, in order to perpetuate the infamy of the 
nation as oppressors of the weak? 

In former days, when any people engaged in a struggle 
of maintaining the right to govern itself, the American 
people was the first to extend to it its sympathy. It was 
so with Greece and was so with Hungary. It was first 
given to the present administration to stifle resolutions of 
sympathy with a people waging a war to maintain its inde- 
pendence with a heroism unparalleled in history. When 
such resolutions were introduced, too cowardly to vote 
them down, and too cowardly to adopt them, the adminis- 
tration saw to it, that they were consigned to the living 
tomb of a committee. 

A dispute with Great Britain arose, touching our Alaska 
boundary. The administration sent one of its ablest pro- 
fessional men, its next but chief of the Coast Survey, upon 
the ground, to determine the question of boundary, and he 
spent many months in so doing. His decision was pre- 
sumably in favor of our claim, because it was thereafter 
oflicially announced that our claim was right, and yet we 



122 

yielded the disputed territor}' into the possession of Great 
Britain, temporuiilv, as a modus vivendi, as the adminis- 
tration said, to avert a war. Have we sunk so low that we 
can wage an unjust war only, and that we can afford to 
wage none in the defense of our just rights? If our claim 
to the disputed territory in Alaska is unwarranted, why 
not withdraw it? If it is just, why not maintain it? Is the 
administration too cowardly to do either? Was the modus 
Vivendi adopted until the ship of the admini^^tration got 
over the election breakers, and is it then to l)e abandoned, 
to culminate in a servile truckling to Great Britain, in 
harmony with the action of the administration in the Boer 
matter? 

THE FLAG. 

One of the main arguments in the present canvass is 
"The American flag. Old Glory, shall, when once hoisted, 
never be lowered." The sentence is one particularly 
captivating. It addresses itself to the imagination of the 
voter, and at the same time is conveniently meaningless. 
The flaij is an emblem for what it stands. Whon it is the 
emblem of liberty, justice and equal rights before the law, 
it should when once hoisted never be lowered. "When it stands 
for injustice, oppression and cruelty, the sooner it is lowered 
the better. It takes but a brute in the latter instance 
to hoist it, but it takes a moral hero to lower it. The 
tri-rolor of France was a noble em])lem when it stood for 
liberty, fraternity and equality, the right of the people 
to govern their own affairs, and to protect their territory 
from foreign invasion, but when it became overtopped by 
the eagle, and was carried by force into the midst of 
neighboring nations, in an attempt to benevolently assimilate 
them to the interests of the Corsican conqueror, its true 
glorv faded, althouirh it was carried bv a no less victorious 
host. The American flag was a noble emblem on sea and 
on land, when it was flung to the breeze at Bunker Hill, 
Yorktown, Saratoga, in the harbor of Manila, on San 



123 

Juan Hill, and at Santiago, at Tunis, Smyrna, and Apia, 
because in each instance it was hoisted in defiance of the 
oppressor, and in support of the most sacred rights of men. 
Is it the same when hoisted in the midst of hostile Filipi- 
nos, dead and dying in defense of the principle, " that gov- 
ernments are established among men deriving their just 
powers from the consent of the governed? " 

I have heard many men say in vindication of our pres- 
ent course of rapine and plunder, that they believe in the 
manifest destiny of the American people. It is a well- 
sounding and convenient phrase, but in the present instance 
ill applied. I, too, believe in the manifest destiny of the 
American people. The North American continent is more 
fertile and varied in its product than that controlled by any 
other people on the face of the globe. It has room for many 
times its present inhabitants. Its people, owing to 
the happy mixture of races, are hardy and resourceful. 
They are not hampered by ancient traditions or hereditary 
vices. They are just and generous. I take it that, owing 
to these fortunate conditions, our manifest destiny is to go 
on developing these magnificent resources of population, 
soil and climate, to successfully compete in our industries, 
owing to our superior intelligence and skill, in the marts 
of all nations, with all nations; to solve successfully the 
different problems of a just relation between capital and 
labor, and to go on increasing in numbers and pros- 
perity, until we are the most happy and powerful people on 
the face of the earth, and a great moral force which, with- 
out violent means, will bring about universal peace and the 
universal brotherhood of man. 

E. E. EOMBAUER. 

The publication of the letter created a great sensation. 
More than two hundred thousand copies were printed for 
distribution, and even that supply proved inadequate to 
meet the demand. It was reprinted in leading journals 
both East and West. The writer received a number of 



124 

pressing invitations to address public meetings, all of which 
he was forced to decline, on account of professional engage- 
ments. What was particularly pleasing to him, was its 
reception by the younger generation, in whose hands after 
all rest the destinies of the country. 

One young man wrote to him : — 

In the interest of the highest aspirations of man, permit 
me to thank you for your expressions, which I have just 
read in the Republic. They have stirred me, as I imagine 
the hearers of Henry must have been stirred, when he 
called them from slavery to freedom. 

Another wrote : — 

In this morning's Republic I read your masterful argu- 
ment in defense of the Declaration of Independence, the 
U. S. Constitution, and true manhood. It is the most 
convincing of any I have ever read, or heard, and I thank 
God that we have such men. 

Another wrote : — 

May God and Humanity ever bless you for your brave 
and true and noble utterance in the letter which appears 
in this morning's Republic. 

God still employs man as His agent, to voice His sense 
of Right and Justice. 

The letter was also read and favorably commented on in 
Eoderick's native land. One of the leading; jurists of Ilun- 
irary thus wrote concerning it to a mutual friend : — 

" I am oblijred to you for the article written bv mv col- 
league, R. E. Rombaucr, which I read with a great deal of 
pleasure. The fortihlc self-assertion, thought and expres- 
sion, so to speak, the idealism of realism, which character- 



125 

izes every line ; the moral courage with which the candidate 
for the highest executive office is called to account, and the 
thorough and clear conception of the subject discussed, 
make me realize with sorrow that Hungary has no such 
judge." 

While the publication of the letter appeared too late in 
the canvass, to have any marked influence on the general 
vote, it unquestionably had some influence on the local vote 
in the city of St. Louis, where Eoderick was best known. 
That city, which in the preceding canvass gave McKinley a 
majority of 15,607 votes over Bryan, his Democratic 
opponent, reduced that majority in 1900 to 666, or nearly 
15,000 — and elected the entire local Democratic ticket by 
slight majorities. 

In April, 1901, a mayor of the city of St. Louis, all of 
its executive officers, one-half of the members of the city 
council, and all the members of the House of Delegates, 
were to be elected. At the preceding biennial city elec- 
tion, a sufficient number of respectable Republican coun- 
cilmen had been elected, to insure an honest and capable 
majority in that council, provided the six councilmen who 
were to be elected could be relied upon. The majority of 
the House of Delegates consisted of unscrupulous plun- 
derers, and the reform of that body, simultaneously with the 
reform of the council, seemed to be too Herculean a task to 
1)6 undertaken by anyone. 

A number of independent citizens, having the welfare of 
the city at heart, met atEoderick's office to determine what 
was the best that could be done under the circumstances. 
The Eepublicans, notwithstanding their local defeat the 
preceding November, still claimed to be able to carry the 
city by an effort, and declined to affiliate with the Inde- ' 
pendents. Independent campaigns were not only very ex- 
pensive, but of very doubtful result. The Democrats 
were wise enough to court the Independent vote, and 



126 

after some negotiation entered into an alliance with it, upon 
substantially the following terms : — 

The Independents were to prepare the platform to be 
adopted by the Democratic City Convention. The names 
of candidates to be voted for in the convention were to be 
submitted to the Independents, and approved by them. 
The non-partisan character of the Board of Education was 
to lie preserved, by nominating for the four vacancies two 
Republicans and two Democrats. The nominee for Mayor 
was to be determined by the Independents, by selection from 
a list submitted by the Democrats. An unexceptional plat- 
form was then adopted, and an unexceptional city ticket, 
consisting however entirely of Democrats, was nominated, 
and was elected by an overwhelming majority. As the 
sequel demonstrated, the flavor, City Council, and the 
majority of the city officers thus elected, were the most 
clKcient the city of St. Louis ever had. In the course of 
this campaign Roderick was requested to address the 
Independent voters, from his standpoint, and at a meeting 
held at the Odeon in March, 1901, spoke as follows: — 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I have been requested to address this meeting from the 
standpoint of an independent voter. While I do so I beg 
your patience and close attention, because my voice is none 
of the best, and I will be brief. If anything in what I say 
should displease you, remember that I do not speak to you 
as a Democrat, nor as a Republican, but as a St. Louisan, 
who has lived among you for more than forty years, and 
who during that entire time tried to perform his duty to 
this tommonwealth fearlessly, and to whom in a municipal 
election the welfare of the city is paramount to all other 
considerations. 

I have always believed that municipal elections should 
not be conducted on national party lines. The issues are 
wholly different. The welfare of the municipality depends 



127 

solely upon this, that its affairs should be in the hands of 
fearless, competent and clean men, who hold correct views 
as to what is, and what is not for the best interests of the 
city . To me it is immaterial what views these men may 
hold on national issues. If party lines are recognized at 
all, they should be lines of division on municipal questions, 
which in their very nature have nothing to do with national 
issues. Municipal parties should not be mere organizations 
for securing public plunder. 

Entertaining these views, I shall cast my vote in the 
approaching municipal election for Eolla Wells for Mayor. 
While I believe that the probabilities of his election are 
great, I would do so even if the probabilities of his election 
were indifferent, because the proverbial band wagon was 
not built for me. 

Let me briefly state the reasons which actuate me in so 
doing. During the last four years St. Louis had the 
worst government of any city in America. Many of its 
streets are ruinous. Its sewers are inadequate. Its public 
hospitals are tinder shells. Its treasury is bankrupt. All 
these matters must be remedied as speedily as possible, if 
we are not to stand disgraced before the civilized world 
whom we have invited as guests to participate in our 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition. No thorough reform in 
that direction can be expected, if the chief officer of the 
city should hold his office by the grace of the very men 
who in a great measure brought about this deplorable con- 
dition, however worthy he may be in other respects. 

Hercules himself would never have cleaned out the Ausean 
stables, if in doing so he would have been compelled to kill 
the horses, which were to draw his chariot to victory. 

Eepublican speakers declaim against the iniquities of the 
Nesbit election law, and of the police law, but have no words 
of condemnation for the men whose acts in part brought 
about these iniquities. No man can have a higher regard 
for the purity of the ballot box than I have. It is the only 
weapon which a freeman should use to protect himself 



128 

against the oppression of his fellow citizens. But I have 
little patience with those who decry the violation of its 
purity by others, yet do not hesitate to violate it themselves 
on every opportune occasion. Four years ago a number of 
us put forward as a candidate for Mayor of this city a man, 
who by practical experience with its affairs, by high moral 
character, and by unquestioned intelligence was emiuentlv 
fitted for the position. Many of us stood at the primaries 
for hours to be enabled to cast our votes for delegations 
supporting him, and were outvoted b}^ Indians who, like the 
Dakotas of the plains, disappeared when their work was 
done, and were heard of and seen no more. Men guilty of 
these acts are now shouting for the purity of the ballot box. 
A little more than two years ago certain charter amend- 
ments were to be voted for, placing the control of many 
millions into the hands of the looters of the city treasury. 
Gangs of Indians were carried from poll to poll to aid in 
carrying the measure. They were deterred fnnn repeated 
voting, only, because we had men with Kodaks taking their 
likenesses while they stood in line. Men guiltv of these 
acts are now applauding appeals for the purity of the ballot 
box. Less than two years ago the leading Democratic 
organ of this city, and uuiny citizens of both parties came 
out in favor of an independent Council ticket. Many brave 
men stood u}) in the Democratic convention, and argued in 
favor of such a ticket, at the risk of their popularity, but 
the scheme was defeated l)y the very men who now pose as 
reformers. Every movement but one in favor of a non- 
partisan ticket was bitterly opposed by the Republican 
leaders. That one was securing a non-partisan school 
board. The merit of that even is not due to the supporters 
of Mr. Parker, but to one of his most earnest opponents. 
It is due to Mr. Chauncey I. Filley, then controlling the 
local Republican machine, who insisted, that the new board 
should be non-partisan, and at whose house the men com- 
posing the first board were selected, regardless of their 



129 

party affiliations, many of whom have filled their positions 
to the present day with distinguished zeal and ability. 

It behooves us above all things to be just. I believe 
that leading Democrats of this city are entitled to the 
credit for the result, that for the first time for many 
vears there are unexceptional opposing municipal tickets in 
the field. When a few months ago it became apparent 
that something must be done to redeem the city from 
the control of the gang which disgraced it for the last 
four years, the leading Democratic organ of the city 
proclaimed in emphatic terms that it would not support 
any one for a city office, even if put forward by the 
Democratic convention, unless he was thoroughly com- 
petent and clean. The leading Eepublican organ remained 
silent on the subject. It was then contemplated to put 
into the field an Independent ticket, regardless of the 
party standing of the nominees on national issues. I was 
in favor of such a movement as the only right one. 
It was abandoned only in view of its utter hopelessness 
of success, and upon the assurance of gentlemen of 
influence in the Democratic ranks, that that party would 
nominate none but men of high integrity who should 
be pledged to nothing but a clean city government, 
and that its selections for members of the school board 
should be wholly non-partisan. The Democratic party 
has kept that pledge. I do not wish to detract from 
the merits of those who a few weeks ago met at the 
St. Nicholas Hotel and to whose exertions it is due that a 
good Eepublican ticket was put into the field. Many 
of these gentlemen are my personal friends, and we have 
stood shoulder to shoulder in former years in attempting 
to purify city politics. They unquestionably deserve 
credit, but they do not deserve the credit of pioneers. 
It is one thing to cut a path through the jungle, and 
another to travel over it after it is made. If all other 
conditions were equal, and the two tickets were of equal 
merit, the Democratic nominees could rightfully claim 

9 



130 

the suffrages of the independent voter, because they were 
the first occupants of an advanced position in purifying 
city politics, and title by occupancy is one of the titles 
recognized by law. 

All things, however, are not equal as far as the heads 
of the two tickets are concerned, and to that I shall now 
briefly refer. Conceding that Mr. Parker and Mr. Wells 
are of equal intelligence, Mr. Wells is the far younger man, 
and is consequently able to bring to the discharge of his 
official duties greater physical vigor, and mental endur- 
ance. He is in the full vigor of his manhood, and the 
four years ahead of him are four of the best years of his 
life. The public is entitled to the services of the best 
years of a man's life, and not to those which are commonly 
ranked as years of decline. In the next place, Mr. Wells 
can enter ujion the discharge of his official duties wholly 
unpledged to any one. That was the condition on which 
he accepted the nomination, and his manly utterances on 
every occasion since he did so, plainly indicate that he in- 
tends to exercise the duties of his office if elected, without 
fear or f :ivor. 

Mr. Parker cannot do this, even were he inclined to do 
so, and there seems to be well founded doubt that he is 
inclined to do so. When he made his first appearance in 
the canvass flanked by the two immaculate patriots, Henry 
Ziegenhein and Chris. Schawacker, with Florsheim Wiirz- 
burger and other reformers bringing up the procession, 
and forming prominent parts of the show, he is reported 
to have said " the nuts belong to the boys." His apolo- 
gists say he qualified this remark by adding ♦' if they are 
clean and possess the proper qualifications." What quali- 
fications? Has any sane man ever doubted the qualifica- 
tion of the boys to eat the nuts? They have eaten the 
kernels for the last four years, in person and by proxy, 
and left us nothing but the bitter rind, and the hard shell, 
the husks, so to speak. Nor can there be the least mis- 
conception as to the meaning of the term ♦* boys." Every 



131 

one who has anything to do with practical politics knows 
who the boys are. They are a set more or less harmless, 
who make their living by politics, commanders of cohorts 
white and red, known as ward heelers, shouters at meet- 
ings, and firers of rockets, whom no one has ever suspected 
of possessing any higher qualifications for office, than eat- 
ing the nuts after they got them. I do not care which 
horn of the dilemma you take. Either Mr. Parker was 
sincere in his remark about the nuts, and then no radical 
reformer can be expected to support him, or he was insin- 
cere, and then he is unfit to be Mayor, because the Mayor 
of a great city should above all things be sincere. 

Mr. Parker's next appearance in public of which I saw any 
account was characterized by a remark equall}'^ designed to 
repel every independent voter. It was an earnest appeal 
to his supporters not to scratch any name on the ticket. 
Where there are two or more tickets in the field for mu- 
nicipal offices, each containing more than fourteen names, it 
is next to impossible, if the tickets are in any way respect- 
able, that all the candidates on one ticket should be com- 
posed of fitter men than those on the others. It is the 
right and duty of every voter who has the best interests of 
the city alone at heart, to discriminate and to exercise his 
choice. Mr. Parker appeals to his hearers to forego that 
choice, and thus places party welfare above the welfare of 
the city, and makes that which is a public trust, a private 
snap. 

One word more and I shall close. An issue is sought to 
be injected into the present canvass, which in the very 
nature of things cannot be at present an issue before the 
people, and that is the municipal ownership of public 
utilities. I rejoice to see that every candidate has an- 
nounced himself in favor of that principle. It is a correct 
principle, has worked admirably in Europe, and in some 
American cities, and under proper safeguards is bound to 
work well everywhere. But how is that issue a living 
issue now? If the city is to acquire public utilities owned 



132 

by corporations or individuals, it has to pay for them. The 
Constitution provides that ♦♦private property shall not be 
taken or damaged for public use without just compensa- 
tion." Where is the money in the city of St. Louis to 
come from, to pay for these public utilities? The city's 
public debt is up to its constitutional limit ; it cannot con- 
tract a debt for another farthing without a new constitu- 
tional warrant. The legislature which has just adjourned 
has failed to provide for calling a constitutional conven- 
tion. Should the next legislature provide for such a call, 
the convention could not take place for nearly three years 
to come, nor could a constitutional amendment be sub- 
mitted to the people for nearly four years to come. What 
is the sense of placing at present an issue before the 
people, on which we all agree, aud with which we prac- 
tically can do nothing, for many years to come. Let us 
deal with living issues. 

The city of St. Louis is looking forward to a new era of 
prosperity. Within three years it will entertain within its 
limits visitors from all nations. Its present condition is 
deplorable, and the time for remedying matters is short. 
If wo want to show our guests a model city, a new St. 
Louis, which has risen Phcenix-like from the ashes of the 
old, let us elect for its chief magistrate a man of youthful 
and indomitable energy, of firm .vili, a man untrampered 
])y traditions of the past, and unfettered by obligations to 
its former looters. That man in my opinion is RoUa 
Wells. 

HIS HUMOR. 

He enjoyed all his life a keen sense of humor, to the 
material beuetit of his physical condition. In fact, in the 
opinion of his friends, he was quite a success himself, as a 
humorous writer and speaker. When suffering from one 
of his srloomv moods, to which he was vcrv much subject 
at one period of his life, he would sit down and write some 



133 

humorous snatches, and after they had performed their 
office of making him laugh heartily, and thus get rid of 
the dumps, he Avould tear up the slips, throw them away, 
and go to work again at something more serious. He was 
a good squib writer. In exciting political campaigns, he 
would send squibs which he had composed to the editor of 
the leading Eepublican paper in St. Louis, who had a 
national reputation as a squib writer. These squibs were 
considered good enough by the editor to use them as edi- 
torial squibs. 

I insert here, by way of illustration, one of his efforts 
at humor, which, owing to the subject it dealt with, did at 
the time of its publication, create quite a sensation. At a 
festival held in 1888, by the Legion of Honor, a well- 
known benevolent organization, part of the programme 
was a mock trial of a breach of promise suit, before a full 
bench and a jury. The mis en scene was very good. A 
number of prominent lawyers acted as judges, and Eod- 
erick, at the time presiding judge of the St. Louis Court of 
Appeals, acted as Chief Justice. Gus Thomas, afterwards 
a playwright of some note, and at the time a youth of con- 
siderable wit, acted as the fair plaintiff, and was done up 
to kill, although his voice, which was a deep base, did not 
harmonize with his apparel. The hall in which the per- 
formance took place, was one of the largest in the city, 
and was crowded to suffocation. 

After a number of witnesses were examined for both 
parties, — the defense relying mainly upon the fact that 
the plaintiff was a confirmed flirt, and that by her acts as 
such the defendant had suffered indignities which rendered 
his condition intolerable ; — Roderick, in summing up, 
charged the jury as follows : — 

Gentlemen of the Jury: Let me first thank you for hav- 
ing kept awake during the entire time of this protracted 
trial, and thus again refuted the slanderous charge of the 



134 

maligncrs of our jury system, who maintain, that during 
every important trial one-half of the jury fall asleep. 

We have been reijuested, both by the plaintiff's and by 
the defendant's counsel, to give you a large number of in- 
structions touching the law of this case, as prepared by 
them. We have given all the instructions thus asked, but 
will not trouble you with reading them, nor with taking 
them to the jury-room, where they might be lost or de- 
stroyed. We have ordered the clerk to file them away 
safely, so that in case of an appeal by either party they 
may be utilized in completing the record. This, as you 
are aware, is the only legitimate province and practical use 
of instructions. 

The case before 30U, gentlemen, is one touching a very 
important subject — marriage. The two most essential 
elements in civilization, retjuisite to the existence and 
continuity of the modern state, are marriage and taxes, 
and as marriage is admitted to be quite a tax in itself, we 
may consider it as the most essential. 

Now the action for breach of promise of marriage, is 
mainly distinguishable from other actions, in this, that it 
will not lie if the adversary parties belong to the same sex. 
No well authenticated precedent can be found, tending to 
show that this action has ever been brought by one man 
ai^ainst another. Nor has any case been called to m>' 
attention where the action was brought by one woman 
against another. Still I do not wish to be understood as 
asserting that this last contingency never occurred, since 
it is impossible to say what a woman may, or may not do, 
when her blood is up. Fortunately, gentlemen, we are not 
harassed with resolving that doubt in the present in- 
stance, since it is conceded by the evidence that the plain- 
tiff is a woman, and the defendant is a man; in fact, no 
one who saw the plaintiff and heard her testify, could for 
a moment entertain any doubt as to her sex. Thus wo 
may assume at the threshold of our inquiry, that there is 
no defect of parties in this case. 



135 

Another fact equally important, the testimony likewise 
concedes, namely, that the defendant is either innocent or, 
else guilty of the breach of promise with which he stands 
charged. The importance of this fact cannot be over- 
estimated, because if he could not possibly be guilty under 
the evidence, or could not possibly be innocent — that is, 
if the testimony were all one way, this would greatly 
curtail, if not entirel}^ abrogate, your prerogative as jurors, 
to find a verdict based solely on your sympathies, or other 
motives of equal weight and consideration. 

The two main points in the case being thus settled, it 
only remains to charge you briefly on the points of law, 
and your duties in the premises. 

On all subjects not covered by statutes, we are supposed 
to be governed by the common law of England. Breach 
of promise of marriage is one of those subjects. Our 
legislators, who could not conceive the possibility of any 
man refusing to marry a woman, particularly if she was 
young and pretty and willing to marry him, have not pro- 
vided by statute for such a case. This action, therefore, 
must be governed by the rules of the common law. But 
what common law? Now, gentlemen, it is generally sup- 
posed that there is only one common law, but we who have 
been charged with the trial of causes for many years know 
better. Common law is nothing but immemorial usaa'e or 
custom, and there are two kinds of it, the common law of 
England, and the common law of Juries. This duality in 
the common law has led to this absurd result, that while 
Judges charged Juries according to the common law of 
England, Juries returned verdicts according to a common 
law of their own. I shall not fall into the same error with 
my predecessors, and thereby aid in perpetuating this irre- 
concilable conflict, but will at once proceed to charge you 
according to what I understand to be the common law of 
Juries, as that is, after all, the only one of any practical 
importance in this class of cases. 

One of the principal features of this law is, that the 



136 

character of the parties litigant is a very important, if not 
a controlling feature in determining the verdict. Thu.s, if 
the defendant is a raih-oad C(jnipany or an insurance com- 
pany, all admissible presumptions must be drawn in favor 
of the plaintiff, and he is generally entitled to a verdict, 
regardless of the mere secondary matter of evidence. This 
is the immemorial custom of Juries, and therefore their 
common law. 

So it is a similar immemorial usage that if the plaintiff 
is a woman and the defendant a man, to tind for the 
plaintiff. No departure from this rule is on record in any 
case where the plaintiff, as in the present instance, was 
young, pretty, witty and vivacious. Some say that the 
foundation of this custom of juries is the gallantry of the 
sex. This proposition, however, I must deny. The true 
foundation, gentlemen, is the regard men have for their 
mothers. 

One of the great charter rights, which your ancestors, 
gentlemen, wrung from a reluctant tyrant at Kuunymede, at 
the point of the battle axe, is the right to have a mother. 
This right is, so to speak, one of the palladia of our 
liberties, and is indirectly recognized in our Declaration of 
Independence, in this wise. If we had no mother, we 
could have no existence, and if we had no existence, we 
could not be engaged in the pursuit of happiness; yet to 
be thus engaged, is, as every schoolboy knows, one of our 
inalienable rights, even though, unfortunately for us, this 
I)ursuit, like the pursuit of a train robber, rarely results 
in capture. 

What I have stated above may in itself be sufficient to 
guide 30U to the true verdict; still, if you also desire to 
pay some attention to the secondary matter of testimony, 
you should be guided by the following rules : If you 
bi'liovo the plaintiff and her witnesses are entitled to no 
credit, you will disbelieve them, unless you further 
believe that the plaintiff should have a verdict anyhow. 
If vou find that the defendant's witnesses have de. 



137 

parted from the truth, you will reject their testimony, 
unless your sympathies are with the defendant. 

Far be it from me to comment on the evidence. That 
matter is exclusively for you, gentlemen. Still, I cannot 
forego making a passing remark or two on that subject. 
I think the promise, with all the appurtenances, sufficiently 
proven. The testimony of the fair plaintiff has unques- 
tionably strongly impressed you with the probability of its 
truth. The life-like picture of the situation could not be 
mistaken; you all know that situation, because, to use an 
expressive phrase, you have unquestionably all been there, 
at some time or another. 

The promise being thus established, the question is, was 
there any cause given justifying its breach. The main if 
not only cause, we are told, is flirtation with another man. 
But is this a cause? Is not the right to flirt, one of the 
inalienable rights of woman? Is it not the pursuit of her 
happiness? Was the Declaration of Independence written 
for man alone? I need say no more. 

I think these few sug-orestions are sufficient to determine 
your verdict as to which party should prevail; if not, you 
will have to determine it upon deliberation. I am sorry to 
say that as to the method of deliberation the authorities 
treating on the custom of juries are not quite agreed. 
Drawing straws, chuck-a-farthing and toss-a-penny, have 
all got their supporters, but I am of the opinion, that the 
best three out of five in the national game of Euchre, be- 
tween the leaders of the o]Dposiug factions in the jury 
room, is more in harmony with the genius of our institu- 
tions, and a proceeding equally well supported by reason 
and authority. 

Having first settled the right or wrong of the case, and 
in one of the manners suggested, determined to find either 
for the plaintiff or for the defendant, the further inquiry 
as to the damages remains, in case you find for the plain- 
tiff. The question of damages is one of the very gravest 
importance. It is the only one in which the plaintiff and 



138 

her liiwyer are equally and evenly interested, and there- 
fore must ])e h:nulled by y(ui with a great deal of care. 

If the plaintiff has a verdict, she is entitled by way of 
damasres to all she has lost, and to all she has found, bv 
the defendant's unwarranted conduct in breaking off the 
match. Now what has she lost? She has lost the com- 
fort of the defendant's society, and she has lost the com- 
fort of turning up her nose at some other woman, who has 
missed getting a hus})aud. She has probably also lost the 
comfort of a sealskin sack, and many other comforts too 
numerous to mention. And what has she found? She has 
found wounded affections ; she has found that her best 
friend, who envied her with all her heart, now secretly re- 
joices at her discomtiture ; she has found mental anguish, 
lacerated feelings and a whole lot of other disagreeable 
things. For all these things, gentlemen, she is entitled to 
full compensation. But here is the rub. How is this 
compensation to bo measured? ]\Iost of these things have 
no market value except, perhaps, the sealskin sack. Who 
ever heard of Famous or Crawford advertising wounded 
affections and lacerated feelings, prime (juaiity, at so much 
a yard? Neither are these articles sold upon our Exchange 
either for cash or for future delivery. Not the most ven- 
turesome of our speculators ever got up a coruer on mental 
au'niish, altliou«;h mental anguish has been the result of 
many a corner. 

Here again, gentlemen, the great superiority of the com- 
mon law of Juries over the common law of England, for 
all practical purposes, is manifest. The simplest and most 
approved method to reach a result is this: After you have 
agreed that the plaintiff is to have a verdict, each of you 
takes the wounded affections, comfort of society, sealskin 
sack, and all other comforts and discomforts lost and found 
by the plaintiff, and above enumerated, and each of you 
makes a lumping estimate, so much for the lot, and hav- 
inij thus made the estimate, writes it down on a piece of 
paper. After every one of you has done this, the esti- 



139 

mates are footed up, and their aggregate is divided by the 
number of jurors. 

Thus, I am proud to say, has the practical mind of the 
American Juror found a ready solution, even in the most 
complicated cases, of the admeasurement of damages. 

This charge, as above stated, created quite a sensation. 
It was republished in some of the dailies of the State ; in 
the leading American law periodical, and also in one of the 
law journals of Great Britain. Fifteen or twenty thousand 
copies were published in pamphlet form, by some law pub- 
lishers in St. Louis, as an appendix to their catalogue. 

The object with which it was written, may here be 
briefly stated. Roderick realized that ridicule is the 
keenest weapon. He was far from being an unconditional 
admirer of trial by jury, and was fully alive to its many 
defects, particularly in civil cases. In England, where 
it originated, it at one time had served to insure to parties 
charged with crime, at least the semblance of a fair trial. 
It must be remembered, however, that the English criminal 
law, in early days, was exceedingly cruel, even trivial 
offenses being punishable capitally, and that the accused 
up to a comparatively recent date, was not even entitled 
to be represented by counsel. On the other hand the 
Judges were creatures of the Crown, wholly dependent for 
their station and emoluments on the grace of the sovereign, 
and in some rare instances the unscrupulous executors of 
his will. All these conditions however were part of a 
semi-barbarous past. In modern times, and particularly in 
the United States of America, the law had provided the 
most minute safeguards for the protection of the citizen's 
life, and liberty, and it became more essential to protect 
society from the criminal, than to protect the criminal 
from the ire of society. 

While it may be said with some show of reason that in 
criminal cases the jury, so to speak, represent the tender 
-conscience of the law, and can thus temper its harsher 



140 

edicts, by making allowance for the frailties of human na- 
ture, it is not so in civil cases. The jury in civil cases, be- 
ing taken from the body of the comnmnity, frequently 
substitute their prevalent prejudices for the law of the land. 
Trial by jury is moreover not only cumbersome, and a 
great waste of the time of courts, but a great waste of the 
time of the juries. They are cooped up in our dingy court- 
rooms, waiting sometimes for days to be called, when they 
might devote their time to their better advantage, and that 
of the commonwetdth, by improving its industrial and 
ajjricultural conditions. 

One of the main pleas in favor of jury trials in civil cases, 
namely, that they furnish a school wherein the mass of 
citizens may actjuire a better knowledge of our laws, is the 
merest sham. Roderick, who took great pains in that re- 
gard, found it difficult to make jurors understand even the 
simplest propositions of law, and was forced in several 
mstances to set aside verdicts before the panel of jurors 
left the bench. Upon repeated discussion of the subject 
with intelligent jurors who attended his court, he became 
satistied, that the benetit derived by jurors in getting a 
clearer conception of the law, by attending courts, was 
infinitesimal. 

At the time, when this charge was delivered, many 
leading jurists on both sides of the Atlantic, and among 
them Lord Coleridge, the Chief Justice of England, had 
taken a very decided stand against the continuation of trial 
by jury in its then form. 



HIS WORK AS AN EDUCATOR. 

During his nuiturer age, Roderick took an active inter 
est in the cause of education. By education I mean not 
only the tuition of young people in book learning, but also 
the endeavor to elevate all people to a higher moral and 
intellectual plane. Great part of the time which he spent 
on tlie bench, and all the time which he spent on the lee- 



141 



ture platform, whether in or outside of college halls, may 
properly be classified as being devoted to educational pur- 
poses. He was a frequent contributor to the daily press, 
both Enslisli and German, and by request a frequent writer 
of editorials. He became attorney for the Board of Pres- 
ident and Directors of the St. Louis Public Schools in 
1871, and held the office until 1878, when he resigned it. 
He also became attorney of the Board of Education of the 
City of St. Louis, upon the organization of that corpora- 
tion in 1897, and holds the office at this date. It was his 
pride that during the entire time, covering a period of 13 
years, while he was attorney of these educational corpora- 
tions, no vote was cast and no action was taken by either 
of the Boards, contrary to his advice. 

Within three years after the foundation of the St. Louis 
Law School, he became one of its professors, without 
remuneration, and he continued as such until his profes- 
sional work at the bar interfered with his duties as a pro- 
fessor to such an extent, that he was forced to resign the 
latter position. In 1894, when his former associate on 
the bench, Geo. A. Madill, retired after 25 years of de- 
voted service from the Professorship of Equity and Eeal 
Property, which he had himself liberally endowed, Eoder- 
ick, at his solicitation, and upon the request of the trustees 
of the College and of the faculty of the school, became 
his successor, and continued as such until the end of the 
scholastic year 1899, when for the reason above stated he 
attain found himself forced to retire. 
"^His relations, both to the faculty and to the students, 
durino- both terms of his professorship, were of the pleas- 
antest nature, and not marred by a single disagreeable 
incident. He was in the school, as he was in other official 
positions he held, a strict disciplinarian. He made it a 
point however to impress his pupils with the conviction, that 
he took an earnest interest in their welfare and studies, 
and he enjoved their confidence and affection. Prior to the 
severance of his relations with the school they presented 



142 

him with a much-cherished souvenir, and a touching ad- 
dress. He was I believe the only one of the professors, 
or lecturers of the school who was thus complimented at 
any time. 

HIS FAMILY. 

I stated in the beginning of this sKetch, that Roderick 
was the third son, and fourth child of his i)arents. They 
had ten children, live girls and live boys. Of these two 
girls and one boy died before the family removed to 
America. Eichard, his next oldest brother, a soldier in 
the Hungarian revolutionary army of 1848, was severely 
wounded at the disastrous battle of V^izakna, in Transyl- 
vania, died of his wounds, and rests in an unknown grave. 
His two youngest sisters, Clara and Irma, died during the 
same stormy period, and lie buried in the cemetery on the 
Rakos, at Budapest. His oldest sister. Bertha, died in 
Davenport, Iowa, in 1852, and lies buried there by the 
side of her father. His younger sister, Emma, the wife 
of Gustavus A. Finkclnl)urg, a prominent lawyer in the 
city of St. Louis, died in that city in 1886, and lies buried 
in Bellefontainc cemetery. His next younger brother, 
Roland, diod on a solitary trail in the wilderness near 
Missoula, Montana, in 1898, and lies buried near Philips- 
burg, in that State. 

One of his sisters, Ida, the wife of John T. Fii\la, of 
San Francisco, California, and two of his brothers, Rol)ert, 
the oldest, and Raphael, the youngest, still survive, the 
former a resident of St. Louis, and the latter of Kirksville, 
Adair County, in the State of Missouri. All of the adult 
male members of his family bore arms in the cause of 
liberty in his native land in 1848, and all bore arms in the 
same cause in their adopted couutrv. His three survivinsr 
brothers, his two brothers-in-law, and himself, were among 
the first to enlist under the flag of the Union in 18G1. 

Roderick married, December 28, 1865, Augusta, the second 



143 

claugliter of Gustavus Koerner, formerly Supreme Judge, 
and Lieutenant-Governor of the State of Illinois, United 
States minister to Spain under the Presidency of Lincoln, 
and Colonel on the staff of General Fremont. The issue 
of this marriage were seven children, three boys and four 
girls, Theodore, Edgar, Alfred, Bertha, Sophia, Pauline 
and Lnna, all of whom survive, with the exception of 
Pauline, an exceedingly bright and attractive child, who 
died in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1884, when six years old, 
and was buried at Belleville, Illinois, the original home of 
her mother. He was much attached to his children, 
although reserved in disposition, and not at all demonstra- 
tive. Most of his children were more attached to their 
mother, than to him. This was unavoidable, since their 
views of the aims and duties of life, corresponded more 
with hers than his, and since her devotion to them was 
marked and unquestionable. 

His relation to the parents of his wife were throughout 
of the pleasantest nature. He never knew from experience 
the proverbial mother-in-law. Although at times serious 
differences existed between himself and his father-in-law, 
both as to public and domestic affairs, they in no way 
interfered with their friendly relations. When his father- 
in-law, after a long and useful life, died in 1896, at the 
advanced age of 87, he left no sincerer mourner behind 
him than Roderick, whom he named first among the exe- 
cutors of his will. 

The various losses of dear ones caused him great sorrow. 
He was not given to outward demonstrations of grief, but 
unfortunately much addicted to nursing it. The loss 
of his little daughter Pauline, who was a great favorite 
with him, was a particularly severe blow, and inflicted one 
of those wounds which never heal. When she was quite 
a baby he took her with him on one of his camping tours 
in the wilds of Colorado, and ever after called her the 
child of the mountains. The year after her loss, when 
roaming solitary over the places in the wilderness, made 



144 



dear to him by the memories of her former presence, he 
wrote the foUowini' Hues: — 



She heard the gentle pattering of the showers 
Upon the white wings of tlie spreading tent, 
She listened to the low song of the flowers, 
All with a woud'ring look, of what it meant. 
The lofty hills, crowned witli autumnal glory, 
Fanned her fair brow, with breezes cool and mild. 
Which whispered in her ears the fairy story, 
Of how the mountains came, to greet their child 



O, soul of mine, with all thy aspiration, 
Speak! shall this ancient sorrow ever die? 
In solitude thou seekest consolation. 
Its echoes but return thy mournful cry. 
Tlie laughing waters, and the wailing wind 
"Which iiends tlie redwood into swayings wild. 
All things which sound, resound it to my mind, 
The mountains send a greeting to their child. 
Their child and mine once, but our child no more, 
A fairy qaeen now, on the silent shore. 



EXPLANATORY. 

Roderick's transathiutic rehitives and friends, who will 
read the foreoroing, may bo surpri-sed at the apparent exag- 
geration of his arconiplishmcnts, by his American friends. 
It may also seem strange to them that all accounts of ad- 
verse criticism of his public and domestic life, is omitted. 
In explanation I may say to them, that the American peo- 
ple are very generous, and are more given to the use of 
superlatives than P^uropeans, excepting tiic French. 

I could make use of public expressions only, since I am 
not aware of the private opinion of tho.se who knew him 
best. lie was exceedingly fortunate in this, that while he 
was in public life for nearly half a century and never 
minced his words, the unkind things Mhidi wi-re publishrd 
concerning him, would iianlly till a few octavo pages, while 
the kind things thus published would till a volume of very 
respectable dimensions, He attributed his immunity from 



145 

personal abuse, which unfortunately is very common in 
American public life, to the fact, that even those who dif- 
fered from him on political and social questions, always 
gave him credit for sincerity, for the courage of his con- 
victions, and for a desire to subordinate his own advance- 
ment to the general welfare of the Commonwealth. 



RETROSPECT. 

As I look back, through the vista of the past, time's 
curtain rises, and I see the entire panorama of Roderick's 
life. I see the curly-headed, unmanageable boy, romping 
over the hills and valleys of upper Hungary, and lording it 
over his rustic playmates. I see him rebel against the 
tyranny of his teachers and resolve to become a bandit. 
I see him drag weary years through the curriculum, with 
more taste for dreaming than for books. I see him a tiny 
member of a student guard lugging a smooth-bore musket, 
too heavy for him to pack. I see him on a railroad train, 
flying over the plains of Hungary, intently gazing towards 
Buda, until he can see its smoking ruins, and the victorious 
tricolor flying over them. I see him standing on the deck 
of an emigrant ship and looking wistfully tovrards the 
receding shores of Europe, and then again standing on the 
wave-washed decks of the ship, aiding to save it. I see 
him walkino; behind a team of fractious oxen, breakino-the 
virgin soil of the prairies of Iowa, and humming the 
*'beatus ille " of Horace. I see him with level and 
transit marking out the iron highway of civilization 
over the prairies of Illinois. I see him bid farewell to 
his morbid ambition, and settle down to earnest and 
useful work. I see him tackle Coke's Institutes, and 
Blackstone's Commentaries, and try to assimilate food for 
which he has no craving. I see him in the swamps of 
Southeast Missouri, and the hills of West Virginia, follow- 
ing the Red, White and Blue. I see him in the vast wil- 

10 



146 

derness of tho West, gazing on endless herds of buffaloes, 
and listening to the savage warwhoop of the Indian. 1 see 
him on the bench meting out justice, fearlessly, and to the 
best of his ability. I yee him stand before the highest 
tribunal of the land, and vindicate successfully, the sov- 
ereign rights of his adopted State. I see him on the lecture 
platform trying to elevate the standard of his profession. 
I see him in the conventions and popular assemblies, trying 
to better the political conditions of his adopted people. I 
hear him lampoon the unaltered continuation of the effete 
institutions of the past, and hear the hall resound with 
merry laughter while he speaks. I hear him glorify the 
memory of dead patriot heroes, and hear people sobbing 
while they listen. I see him in the weird mountains of the 
"West, tearing deep furrows into the surface, in search of 
their treasure. I see him standing on Hungary's most an- 
cient ruin, with the past chieftain of liberty's hosts, and 
gaze over the hills and valleys of battlefields of forty-eight 
years ago. 

And of a sudden the air grows redolent with the faint 
odor of violets, and soft hands are placed into his, with a 
trust that shall never fade, until he stands near open graves 
pressing his hands on wounds that never heal. And then 

Over all amain 
Time's rolling curtain falls, never to rise again. 



MAR 30 1903 



